Blogs from Nikko, Tochigi, Japan, Asia - page 2

Well, we know and we can tell you a fair bit after visiting the Osaka Science Museum. The Osaka Science Museum is a four-floor building filled with wonderment and fun. We were immediately impressed when we found 'Cubekon'- a robot that solves Rubix cubes. It is in this museum that you can interact and learn about astronomy, technology, geology, chemistry, physics and biology. We looked through old astronomy equipment, played with circuits and sniffed fragrances (including gross pizza and takoyaki). One of the best floors was the second floor, called: 'Science is fun'. We completed a series of marble runs and played strange musical instruments. James enjoyed checking himself out in the hall of mirrors. After a morning of exploring we went to the science show. The theme was 'static electricity'. This topic could really make ... read more

Like usual, I picked an early train to maximize my touring time. It takes three hours to get to Nikko, my destination for today. I debated last night not going and staying in Tokyo because of the travel time, but so many guide books and blogs recommended it, I decided to still go. I had to switch trains in Tokyo to catch a bullet train out. I had to switch again to get a local train out to Nikko (it's a small town part way up a mountain). On that train I made a new friends. His name was Rob and he was in Tokyo from Maryland for work, (something to do with bio engineering). He had a three day weekend (I'm thinking he works with the government as a contractor and gets memorial day off ... read more

I awoke the following rainy day having had an odd dream, to clean my bicycle chain I use a toothbrush, a very oily toothbrush I might add. In the ethereal realm and against the science of hygiene it appeared to be perfectly acceptable for me to use this toothbrush in order to clean my teeth. I do worry about my sub-conscience sometimes and upon waking I checked my teeth. As a British standard, horrible, yet not oily. It was just a dream, I was thankful. As it was chucking it down I re-created a scene from 7 years previously by having a stroll down to Kanmangafuchi Abyss. An eerie, secluded gorge just outside of town formed many years ago by the eruption of nearby Mt. Nantai. A mood lingers in the air as a row of ... read more

This is my old trip pictures when I went to Japan. To Nikko, you can easily take a train from Utsunomiya, about 40 min and you can just keep sitting until the Nikko. There was a restroom inside the train. There were shuttle buses going around the city, or you can walk 20-30 min to the Toshogu shrines from the station. I saw lots of free water section. There was a ticket office, actually the ticket was only for Toshogu and I had to buy another tickets for different places. It costed about 3,000yen total I think.... read more

Well, this will be the last blog for this trip. I am sitting in my hotel in Tokyo waiting for the worst effects of Typhoon Wipha to pass before heading to the airport and (hopefully) catching my flight home to Sydney. On Tuesday I headed off to the World Heritage site of Nikko. I incorrectly thought that the journey from Nagano to Tokyo was going to be my last trip on the shinkansen, but it turns out that the quickest way to Nikko using the rail pass involved a couple more. It was interesting to see that the shinkansens I was catching were actually 2 connected to each other, which I hadn’t seen before. I guess they split somewhere further up the line. I arrived at Nikko and headed to the tourist information first, just up ... read more