Chilling in the temple

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After our first journey on the bullet train we arrived in the mountain town of Takayama and there was snow on the ground. We stayed at a temple, which was FREEZING - it made sleeping difficult, showering impossible, and even teeth brushing was unpleasant because the water was so icy.  We had to wear all of our clothes all of the time: t-shirt, four jumpers, coat, scarf, gloves, hat, thermal leggings, jeans, two pairs of socks, and that was just to go to the loo.

As is customary in Japan, on entering the building we had to leave our shoes at the door and put on the slippers provided. The problem was M couldn`t find any big enough so had to be content with a pair of size sixes, toes and heels hanging over the edges.  H couldn`t find a pair that matched and had to settle for a pointy light-green one and a dark-green round-toed one. Never before have our style standards reached such lows.

Zen and the art of wearing slippers

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Mysteriously the temple master who greeted us was wearing only one slipper and contiued to do so for the duration of our stay.  To continue the theme, when we finally got to the loo, bundled up in all our clothes, we were confronted with toilet slippers - of course they didn`t match or fit either.