At the end of summer 2007, Mari and I spent ten days visiting her parents in Nagoya, Japan. During our stay, we made two day-long excursions, using Japan's excellent rail service.

The first was to an area in the mountains where a hotel has been built at the site of a hot spring. As is the custom in Japan, people bathe in the well laid out spring completely naked - but separated by gender. As a result I couldn't take a photo of Mari in the spring, but this is what the men's side looked like.

We spent an hour or so climbing to the highest point in the hotel gardens, from where we had a great view (see left). By the time we reached the hotel again we were glad to get into the air conditioned inside, as the temperature was in the 30s and it was very humid.

An excellent eight course lunch had been arranged for us, beautifully presented and very delicious.

Later in the afternoon we went to explore an old village which served in the past as a staging point on the road from Tokyo to Osaka. Most of the buildings have been preserved as they were more than a hundred years ago, though most of them now are one-room shops catering to tourists. Those that have not been converted give a good idea of how people lived in the days before running water, electricity and other modern services.

Our second visit was to Kyoto, where Mari obtained her MA degree. Only 35 minutes by bullet train from Nagoya (148 km), we had plenty of time to visit. Here is what the on-line guide has to say about Kyoto:

During the 'Heian' period (8 - 12c), which falls into the medieval time of the Japanese history, the nation's capital had been set in Kyoto. The ancient capital had been the seat of the Imperial Court (the Emperor's residential palace) during this period, and until 1867. Temples of different periods had been constructed in and outside of the city during its long history as the capital. Kyoto is the cradle of important elements of the Japanese culture, including gardens, Zen Buddhism, tea ceremony, flower arrangement, etc. While many of the city's temples boast long history, graceful atmosphere of the former times is very well preserved in the residential quarters and the street corners.

Although Mari spent some time in Kyoto, she had never visited the western side of the city, where there are many shrines and temples. We took the local train to Arashiyama and then headed to the Tenryuji Temple, which was originally built in 1339 and has been ranked first among Kyoto's "Five Great Zen Temples".

On the way, we looked into several smaller temples, each beautiful in its way and admired an elegant collection of trees at the front of a small office building.

At Tenryuji, our main interest was in the garden, which has survived in its original form and is now recognized as a World Heritage Site. One of its most impressive features is the lake, which was designed to be viewed from the Abbot's dwelling (which is at the top right side of the photo)

Streams flowed everywhere, in some places engineered to feed pools on the way.

We spent an hour or so wandering through the garden, admiring the arrangement of trees of different colour. It was clear that they had been shaped to fit their particular locations.

From Tenryuji we walked through bamboo groves, passing a popular shrine on our way. We were impressed by the number of people stopping to pray before moving on to choose a small paper that foretold the (their?) future.

After lunch we decided to visit one of the temples we had passed on our walk. Nisson-ni invited visitors to strike the large gong, hung in an ornate structure, to show their appreciation. It reverberated with a fine sound for a full minute after being struck. This temple contained several shrines, one containing two buddhas that are highly valued and viewable only from a distance.

On our way back to Arashiyama, we passed another temple where we paused to view the garden and a distant shrine through an old gateway.

Our final stop was in the centre of Kyoto, which was extremely busy with shoppers visiting the (expensive) department stores or strolling through the arcades, which seemed to stretch for miles. It was entertaining to stop for a coffee and simply watch the passers-by. Young people's ideas of fashion were an eye-opener and quite entertaining.