After Fiji it was a shock to return to Northern Hemisphere winter, but also a welcome change from backpacking to being hosted, guided and looked after so well by Yoshi's (Alice's sister in law) family. A week is hardly enough to take in one of the most varied, eccentric and subtle cultures in the world, but we certainly did our best!
Visiting Tokyo at New Year brought a double bonus - we were able to celebrate amongst family, and experience the capital during one of the most important festivals of the year. At midnight, we made our pilgrimage to the local shrine and queued up with the local residents to make our New Year's wishes, eat snacks from the many impromptu stalls, drink sake and huddle round the fire. On New Year's Day, we followed the crowds to the presidential palace to see the president appear with his family and address the nation.
Along with the traditional culture, we also experienced Tokyo's more eccentric side, including a lunchtime trip to a maid cafe (where the waitresses dress like characters from Japanese anime cartoons, and the highlight of the meal is to get your photo taken with them in the pose of an animal of your choice - no really!), Alice's unreal photo session in Harajuku, and of course the obligatory karaoke session.
Just before leaving we managed to fit in a two day trip to Kyoto. We made the journey on the spectacularly quick (300km/h) and efficient Shinkanzen (bullet train), which was an experience in itself. The old part of town was a beautiful mixture of tranquil temples and gardens and narrow streets lined with wooden shuttered teahouses. We were even lucky enough to catch a glimpse of three geisha disappearing through the door to one of the teahouses.
Despite the obvious similarities associated with the lifestyle of the developed world, Japan felt in many ways the most different culture we have experienced all year. The amazing food is one example, but nothing better epitomises the Japanese than such idiosyncracies as electrically-operated heated toilet seats (found universally in every cafe, restaurant and home), the crazy TV game shows (like Banzai on every channel) and the fact that nobody will even consider crossing a road until the green man appears (even when there is no traffic in sight).
From Tokyo we made a gruelling and very indirect 2 day trip to Vancouver, lightened by a day's stopover in Fiji, where we managed to get out to one of the islands for some last sun and sea before our ski season (life is tough!). We have now settled in at Whistler and done our first few days of skiing. While the weather has been beautiful, we are now praying for some more snow - apparently it's coming next week...
