Japanese kids get their kicks at karate ceremony

A friend reports a strange sighting in Kyoto when he was travelling their in January – he spotted dozens of youngsters clad only in white pajamas standing in the frigid waters of the city’s lovely Oigawa River.

When he investigated the odd sight, he discovered the pajamas were actually karate uniforms and the kids were being baptized, so to speak, as part of their training regime.

The “baptismal” ceremony is carried out every January and those who can last one hour in the ice-cold river, which is fed by the snowcapped mountains that ring beautiful Kyoto, you get a passing grade.

While standing in the water, the kids, some as young as 5, carry out exercises like kicking and punching and most of them seemed to be having a good time, according to my friend, despite the cold water temperature.

Just another unexpected but awesome sight you can expect to see when you’re travelling through the cities and towns of amazing Japan.

Subway map or bowl of udon...?

Japan is notorious worldwide for their technology, crowds of commuters, and their efficiency in just about anything, and there is nowhere that this is more apparent than at a train station. If you've been to Japan you've been on a train and the subway. If you were not a train, you missed seeing an integral part of how the country operates. The train is how the country moves. To my pleasure, at some hours of the day it appears that the whole country may be on the move at once. Crowds of suits and fashionable clothes move in all directions. I stand in the middle and stare at a subway map. Sadly you can't aimlessly just follow the crowd and expect to get where you're going. It's fast and can get you just about anywhere, if you have an idea how to get there. There are express trains, limited express trains, super express trains, Hikari trains, Nozomi bullet trains, and on and on and on. It's quite possible, and a rite of passage, to get on the wrong train. Where is Motohasunuma?

Not unlike any other time visiting a new city, I arrived in Tokyo, checked-in, and then headed out. First stop, directly to the hotel staff for help with my subway map. Soon enough, I'm in a department store that's blasting Christmas tunes as I make my way past a giant Christmas tree down to an incredibly long escalator ride followed by another escalator ride to the subway station. I had my notes on which subway line to take to get where I wanted to go, but I stood for a few moments trying to make sense of the subway map before purchasing a ticket. Was it the right ticket? Who knew. I thought I knew what direction I was to going though, so that direction it was. It was the right ticket. The next time on the subway, I was on the wrong train, had the wrong ticket, and needed to recalculate my fare with the station staff. I figured it out, and the subway now makes a little more sense.

The Tokyo Metro is clean and certainly among the best in the world, and by the rows and rows of nodding heads, the metro provides it's passengers a good rest as well.  With Japanese/English electronic displays, it's simple to see where you are, and the friendly nature of the locals helps make it all that much easier.