We found a lovely little guesthouse called Pongyi (monk, in Burmese! to stay in in Kanagawa. What a coincidence! Masaki, our host and owner of the place, had been a monk for awhile in Burma (Myanmar) but said there were too many rules - no laughing, no smiling, eat whatever people put in your bowl even if it`s meat, etc. So he came back to Japan and started over (he had given everything away) and now owns this little place. He, Yu and Mara bought and cooked two huge pots of veggies, chicken and broth with noodles for our Thanksgiving feast. There were 3 other 25+ year old women there traveling. One works as a river guide in summer and ski instructor in winter in Nagano. The other one works for Ikea. and the third was a design student in school. We all had a really fun festive time. We played rock, scissors, paper to decide who got to pick which Mister Donut treat at the end of the meal. We took lots of pictures.
When we left the next day, Yu and Mara had made these little cut paper envelopes for us to take, to put money in for New Year`s for kids. They carried our bags outside, gave us hugs and waved us off! You never get that in a hotel!! Oh, and our picture will be up on their Facebook page - Pongyi. We`ll have to look! He had a beautiful Buddhist altar in the dining room with an unusual walking Buddha with hand down, which I`d never seen. He said his Burmese master monk had given it to him. Very peaceful place!
AND I got to talk with Jackson and Sarah on Skype and say hi to everyone in New Hampshire gathered for Thanksgiving! Only 2 more weeks of travel! It`s been 29 straight days of constantly on the go each day packed full! It will be nice to get home!
Tonight we are staying at a temple inn in Takayama kind of in the mountains. On the train ride here we saw snow up high - just a dusting! It was cold walking around this evening. But we have a lovely two room suite - tatami mats, futons and duvets so it should be warm. Outside our shoji (the sliding wall) is a lovely garden. So far Betty has picked excellent places.
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