I found my new happy place and the train gets me there in 20 minutes.

I had Thursday and Friday off this week after my first day of teaching solo (more on that later) and I spent the much needed downtime getting my apartment settled (updated video tour coming soon) and setting out on a day trip to the beautiful town of Narita. Narita is home to the country's largest airport, but just two train stops from the terminal lives Japanese heaven, and it's only a 20 minute train ride from my apartment. My first mini-trek away from my home base did not disappoint. I was so impressed that I'm going back on Sunday to delve a little deeper and bring fellow expat teacher Natasha along with me so I can watch the awe happen to someone else. Narita's culinary specialty is eel, and the main street lined with shops and restaurants mimics the snaking shape to the bottom of the hill where you see this:

The video below is taken from under the giant lantern at the top of the stairs. These pictures and video are such a sorry representation that I almost hesitate to post them. The temple's grounds are endless and totally engrossing. The quality of the light and sounds and smells are all completely lost in this medium, but the upshot is you will be shocked when you come visit even after viewing the photos. And for those of you who have been complaining that I don't appear in any of the photos, I make a cameo in the following video. Once I have some friends to take my picture, you'll be seeing more of my face ;).

I watched a ceremony in the main temple that included drums and fire and chanting which beats the shit out of anything I saw at United Methodist growing up. The monks were also kinda hot, but I feel wrong for thinking that. I was only brave enough to take the hot Monks picture when he wasn't looking.

I could only partially experience the temple because all of the signs are in Japanese and my sad secret is that I can't read. This makes for some fun games (more about that in a later post) but I do feel that I miss out on a lot. I think I'll do a little research about the temple so my trip on Sunday can be a bit more educational. Anyway, my point is, here are a few beautiful photos of the temple buildings and surrounding areas, but I can't tell you what they are called or what purpose they serve. Damn you illiteracy!

Wall and garden behind the main temple

Japanese friends: What is this?

I could go on and on about the scale and intricacy of the buildings all day, but what I really want to know is, how do these top heavy buildings survive the earthquakes?

Huge tangent warning: I have had earthquakes on the brain lately. The other teachers have been scaring the hell out of me with reports of bi weekly tremors and 6.8 quakes rattling the apartments. I'm always looking around for a good place to stand in case today is the day. So far, the best place I've found is a giant open field with no trees or wires in my immediate neighborhood. In the event of a large quake, the geniuses of Japan have developed an early warning system that sounds sirens. Trouble is, it only gives you about a 10 second warning. The large open field is about a three minute walk from my place, but I think the surge of adrenaline the siren will give me might just make up the difference. The ten second warning is supposed to give you enough time to turn off the gas, open the front door (in case of shifting) and stand in a doorway. I've rehearsed this several times and with my quickest speed, I'll still have almost four seconds left over for screaming and crying.
Enough about that, back to my happy place, which is now Narita's temple grounds. After passing through the first large temple, I came to this scene:
I thought the little puppet worm from Labyrinth might show up and tell me which way leads straight to the castle, but no dice, so I went right. I was rewarded with the most beautiful place I have ever seen, EVER. Dubrovnik in Croatia recently held this record, but we have a new winner.


I spent the next few hours wandering paths though a lush forest filled with trees I have never seen before, birds I have never heard before and ponds containing the biggest coy I have ever seen. You can see the coy from clear across the pond, see for yourself.
A hint for those new to blogs: If you click on the picture you can see the full size version.

Lunch time with the turtles and fish

I bought myself the wall hanging above in one of the shops on the way back to the train station to remind me of this day. My visit to Narita made me absolutely sure I am in the right place at the right time. I can't wait to take those of you who visit!