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Published: November 13th 2008
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First taste of Fall
The mountains of Nikko Over the weekend we headed North to Nikko, Japan. It was about a 2 hour train ride. Most of the Japanese people on the train are very excited to be on the train. What I mean about excited is they are drinking heavily at 8:00 am in the morning. We made some "friends" outside the train station who happily pulled us into pictures with them. Turns out they were staying at the same hotel as us so we saw a lot of them. One guy said "ok" to me at least 28 times.
It was our first taste of fall this year. The trees were beautiful and it was very cold. We spent the morning and early afternoon walking around some shrines and temples that were all conveniently located right by each other. We checked out three of them before we got our fill.
Mid-afternoon we headed up the mountain on a bus that our hotel provided. We were the only ganjin (non-japanese) on the bus. About 30 minutes winding up the mountain the bus stopped at a locals destination. He said about 2 minutes worth of directions all in japanese. We followed everyone off the bus not really
Snake Bridge
A sacred bridge that crosses the Daiya River. knowing what was going on. Luckily a guy on the bus lived in San Francisco, and he spoke both Japanese and English. I think we had a lost look on our face. He told us that we had 30 minutes to view the water fall and the bus was picking us back up at a near by building at 4:00 pm. I'm pretty sure we would have been stranded at that waterfall all night, and would have had to walk down the mountain had he not told us what was going on. That is the hard part of heading out of Tokyo, once you are outside the city limits, not much English is spoken.
When we got to the hotel and all checked into our room (somehow with very broken English and the very little Japanese we know) we entered our Japanese style hotel room. It was our first time staying on tatomi mats, not as bad as you'd think. What was so funny to me is that they are two twins. Most hotels Japanese style are twin beds. Not sure why. There are some pictures of our room. The bath tub and shower was clear glass right off
of the porch so you could see out and anyone could see in if they were creeping in woods. We spotted some creapers, but they were on four hoofs. First deer of the season. We had a flash light in our room so we sat on our back porch drinking and spot-lighting deer - just like old times. From what we could tell, they look the same as American deer.
One of the highlights of the weekend were the Onsen. Onsen's are natural hot springs and they are all over Japan. They are a very big deal. They are same sex onsen's so Stephen and I had to part ways. You walk through the hotel in your robe, (I got to pick mine out when we checked in, Stephen's was in the room though he did get "special" sandals since his feet are larger) and go into a locker room where you completely disrobe. When you get in the Onsen room, you shower off with one of the many shower heads sitting on your little stool. Then you climb on in in your birthday suit (hence why the are not co-ed). They have outside ones as well where you
just walk right outside in all your glory and slide right in. It was actually very peaceful outside and the cool air felt great. I actually saw a buck while I was out there. I was hoping to see some monkeys (they've been known to get into the Onsen with you), but we did not see any. When I say I'd like to have seen them, I didn't want to be in the Onsen with them, from a distance would have been great.
The food was a whole other experience. Most hotels charge you per person, mostly because they include dinner and breakfast charges per person, but also because many Japanese stay in common areas that have random beds. Thankfully, we didn't have to do that. Dinner was about a 14 course meal. The only thing you choose is what you want to drink. There was a lot of tofu, raw fish, two soups, rice of course and we got to do some shobu-shobu (where you cook your own meat in boiling oil). Dessert was bean curd and a wonderful mixture of fruit. Stephen and I are both very good about at least trying everything. If you don't like
Mystery Horse
Given to Japan from New Zealand it, the beer we got to choose to order was immediately put into use. Breakfast was a different story. We follow the waiter to our table where there are salads and two plates with raw fish and little cold pieces of meat. They brought us over rice and miso soup, and we are sitting there thinking "didn't we just eat all of this. There is a hot rock there that they light a candle underneath to cook two pieces of ham and they crack a egg on top. Not exactly what we are used to, but it is better than the tofu with milky liquid on it (again, this is breakfast!). The manager noticed we were not devouring our raw fish, and was so kind to bring us out toast with butter. Best toast I've ever eaten!
We headed out for a cold walk along Lake Chuzenji hoping to see monkeys but we had no luck. I can't express how kind the Japanese people are. They appoligize to us when they speak in broken English as if it is their fault we can't communicate. The entire hotel staff came outside to wave goodbye to the bus as we pulled
Famous monkeys
See no evil, hear no evil, say no evil away. They were still bowing until we couldn't see them anymore. The drive back down was a bit nausiating and I was thankful we didn't find the hotel bar the night before. We had a fantastic time and feel like we got a true Japanese holiday experience. Hope you enjoy the pictures.
We are headed back to Atlanta for Thanksgiving so this will be the last post for awhile, but we have two trips planned for December already. Stay tuned.
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