Golden Week begins Off to explore Narita temples, eels, and mom!

SO, during my only other time off here in Japan, I had the chicken pox and couldn't really leave my house until the end of the week. THIS time, I went full steam ahead into the fray!! I got off work at 7pm Saturday and by 11pm was already an hour outside of Tokyo in Goi eating out with one of my best friends here in Japan. I wasted NO time getting out of dodge! haha.

Sunday, we went to Narita. I have only ever thought of this place as "where the airport is." Oh how wrong I was. I was led unknowingly to a temple/shrine and it was important to get there before 11am, but I was not let in on WHY. Once the ceremony started I didn't even care. There were monks, bells, chanting, drums (oh the drums), fire, incense, and praying. I was enraptured. When it was finished I went outside, bought a charm of protection, and lit a candle for my cousin who recently passed away. Overall, I could have happily done nothing else that whole day, but it wasn't over. (Cool thing about the charm: there is wood inside, and it says it will protect you from accidents/troubles because if something happens that the wood will break so that you won't - I love that.)

Because we were on a mission to get to the ceremony at the shrine, I didn't have a chance to take pictures on the way up, so all of my pictures on the way down from the shrine instead of the way in like one might normally expect. :)

This is one of the buildings around the shrine (of which I actually didn't get a picture - weird).

I LOVE the details on the buildings... even the ends of the wood are carved and gilded.

Beautiful (and right in front of the main building!)

They have some amazing stone gardens and statues as you walk around the grounds. Stephen loved this one - so I got a picture of him taking pictures of it. :) The actual temple is in the background of this one too.
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Also, I loved the view of all the traditional buildings that line the road on the way up from the station.  I felt like I had been transported back in time at a couple spots. Until of course a car would zoom on the down the street next to you. haha.

The stairs were SOO steep it was amazing. There were lots of turtles that I was TOLD it was good luck to knock off the rocks with money, but I'm pretty sure that was a lie. The Buddhas were all dressed to impress and there were old style slippers that I found fascinating. I loved it.

After that adventure, we went to lunch at a little hole in the wall for eel. It was amazing, they had a bucket of live eels that this guy would just reach in, grab, and prep for cooking! Talk about melt-in-your-mouth fire-roasted eel and rice. After eating, I HAD to get a video of the process - and a couple of pictures.  (below)

Again - a day with just that would have been fantastic, but it wasn't over!! Next we made our way to the airport for Starbucks and people watching, and PICKING UP MY MOM! I Love my mom - So amazing to see her after 6 months apart, by far the longest we have ever gone. After a start like that, there's no way this week won't be great. :) Looking forward to it!