Nikko, monkeys, and monks.

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The train ride from Tokyo to Nikko was around 2 hours and involved 2 different trains so we arrived around 2:30 or 3 and started walking to our lodge. The place we are staying is run by 2 Buddhist monks, even though we only saw one, were sure the other was around somewhere. A soon as we stepped off the train things were different, the weather was actually very nice. Nikko is about 1500 ft. above sea level so the humidity was only in the 70% range and the temp was about 75 F. A very welcome change from the miserable 90% humidity we have been in the last few weeks. We started on the uphill walk to our hostel and after about 15 minutes of sweating we finally arrived. We checked in and got to our room earlier than expected so we went off to see the nearest temple. We found a few interesting things along the way. I spotted a deer, and some kids at a summer camp spotted us. I heard one of them point and say in Japanese “look foreigners!” at this point. I’m so used to it I just wave and saw hello. The young kids are much more welcoming than some of the older people. After about a half hour and 2 bridge crossings we found the temples. On our way up to the temples we heard this strange sound; it could be a bird, a ton of insects, or monkeys. Were not really sure but it sounds creepy, turn on your sound for the video. We also found that capitalism had finally reached Nikko as it was 1,300 yen each (about 13.00 USD) to get in. so we shelled out the cash and off we went. We also found we just barely made it. This whole city closes at 5:00 PM. We were literally the last people out of the temples. We saw some neat things like the “hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil’ monkeys. We walked up about 150 stairs that were barely wide enough for our feet to see a burial site of some guy. I walk all this way so I threw in a 100 yen for good luck. So far tipping monks has really worked out in our favor. We made it back to the lodge to have our Zen dinner. This was interesting. First all food is grown at the lodge and then prepared in a vegan sort of way. The dinner consisted of some soup, which was like miso but lighter and had carrots and dikon in it. Then we had about 5 different kinds of rice, along with a salad of cabbage and lettuce. The specialty in Nikko is Yuba, which is the skin created when tofu is made. It actually tastes pretty good, so I ate it. The last part is some kind of weird mixture of 3 different mushrooms and more tofu, all cooked at the table in a tiny old style iron pot. I ate what I could but I’m not a big fan of fungus so I ended up giving most of it to Amanda. I made up for the room in my belly for a few beers with the people we met at the lodge. After that it was off to bed, they offered 7 AM yoga classes taught by the head monk dude, so we signed up for them, and then were off to walk the streets of Nikko.

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