oh tokyo!

To the dump!

What, you might ask, are these sweet children doing?

Very seriously taking notes for school about this!

we'll the bike leg has been over for some time now, and we've been busy here in tokyo. the city itself is a huge mass of concrete, neon, and wall to wall buildings. it is very, very easy to lose oneself in any given neighborhood, not only because of the seemingly circular route of the streets, but also because there is just so much to see. every neighborhood presents itself as a maze of alleyways, side streets, and commercial strips. there are people, people everywhere and more often than not, they are on bikes. bikes on the sidewalk, in the street, and parked in rows at every shop in the city. we've seen moms with two kids in bike seats (one on the front one on the back) and one on her back, fast asleep. we've seen old men, young school girls and boys, and grandmothers doing the daily shopping all on bikes and all while navigating tokyo. and, it all works. it is truly a revelation to see how useful the bike can be in such a big city.

diana and i are just back in tokyo from spending two days in the mountains at dewa sanzen. the three mountains of dewa sanzan are among the most sacred in japan. we had the opportunity to take our first shinkansan train (bullet train) and traveled about 400 miles northwest of tokyo to the town of tsurouoka. the train line that we traveled on is one of the most expensive in the world. from tokyo to the port city of nigata (1/2 the trip distance) a train line was built in the 1980s that cost over 1.5 trillion yen and put the japan rail line into a huge amount of debt. the cost per kilometer: 6 million yen! the main reason for the expense: almost the entire line to nigata runs through the mountains. long, long tunnels through volcanic rock!

the mountains were beautiful and we stayed at the tippy top of one of the three sacred mountains. out lodging atop mount haguro sat among a lovely cedar forest and abutted the temple and lodging of the monks who still practice an obscure from of shinto-buddhism that was once practiced in japan. we had the most amazing view of the valley below and the mountains in the distance. one morning we awoke to a breathtaking pink and deep red sunrise, and this morning to a valley enveloped in a foggy mist. it was amazing.

more later. someone else wants a turn on the computer. forgive any errors. xx jen and diana