To Nagano!

This morning we convened around 9 am in our “room” (tiny cell like structure with a bathroom with an elevated floor) to make our plan. This involved walking to the Tokyo Main Station - 15 minutes away; breakfasting at the appropriately named Rail Cafe; and then buying our tickets on the Bullet train for today’s journey to Nagano and tomorrow’s journey to Kyoto. Everything is so well managed and maintained that this proved pretty effortless. Brilliant, five stars Japan!

The trip to Nagano the next day went effortlessly and our hotel, the Sotetsu Frésia Inn was only a couple of minutes from the station. We checked in and then went out for a walk up towards the Zenkoji Temple. It was already late the afternoon so we knew it was useless to try to see the temple itself. We were instead in pursuit of great coffee.

This led to our first Magic Moment at the Sunday Love Coffee cafe, a tiny hole in the universe where we were met with intelligence, grace and warmth. This cafe is only open three days a week. The charismatic owner and maestro grinds every bean himself, filters the coffee into a beaker and presents it with love. We sat there at his bar with five stools and, with the only other longtime customer, a beautiful woman, we conducted a fun fractured conversation across our language barriers. I will never forget this place!

We abandoned the idea of Matsumoto Castle for the next day, and decided that our only half day at Nagano should be devoted to the sprawling Buddhist Zenkoji Temple Complex and the nearby Art Gallery.

Zenkoji Temple was founded in 642 AD by Yoshimitsu Honda. The complex itself begins at the main gates where fearsome effigies repel evil spirits. From there s rather marvellous and seductive market lines either side of the road up to the main temple itself.

Here were had another Magic Moment when we turned the huge sutra wheel, a large, octagonal, revolving sūtra holder located in the Kyōzō (sutra house), also known as the Rinzo or Sutra Case. We were allowed to rotate the heavy wooden arm of the case, which contains a complete collection of Buddhist scriptures. This apparently would let us gain the same spiritual blessing as reciting all the sutras themselves. We also witnessed a service with the monks chanting, sounding bells and drums, in the main temple building. Fascinating!

The day was warm and sunny, and once the crowds began to thicken we decided that the art gallery would be appropriate! Such a change of pace from the temple, The spare clean lines of the art gallery provides the antithesis (anti-thesis) to the highly stylised and ornately decorated temple. They share the same geography but not the same air: the one heavy with human longings and it must be said, commerce; the other rarified almost to abstraction.

We had a light meal on the art gallery terrace overlooking the temple and the ring of heavily wooded hills that frame this pretty little city. Then it was time to catch our train further south to Kyoto. Four or so hours later we washed up at this most vibrant and ancient capital of Japan. Wow!Read more