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Published: January 12th 2007
Still stuffed from the birthday that consisted of sitting around all day eating, the next morning we got the rental van, picked up the children's grandma, and headed north. It took seemingly forever to get there but when we finally arrived we headed first to Nikko Toshogu, the main attraction in Nikko. Nikko, a World Heritage site, is most famous for its mausoleums of the Tokugawa Shoguns. Toshogu is the most magnificent of all of the temples and shrines.
In the Toshogu complex, there are various gates, halls, buildings, etc. One of the most famous symbols there is the carving of the Three Monkeys, from which the saying "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" originated.
After a fair amount of sightseeing, we stopped in at Edo Wonderland, a miniature Japanese village geared for the kids. Highlights included ninjas and samurai. We then headed to our ryokan for the night. Ryokans are traditional Japanese inns and in my opinion could be quite intimidating for the non-Japanese so I was glad it wasn't just myself and Mom! Basically it's supposed to be a very relaxing place and so upon arrival you are given a yukata (bathrobe) which you
wear around the entire time you're there. Now to say that seeing everyone walking around in bathrobes felt odd was an understatement. However, after an overnight in the ryokan I thought "Hey, I could get used to this!" There's something to be said about bathrobe attire in my opinion. At any rate, the highlight of ryokans are their onsens, or public baths. Never having a problem with nudity, I was surprised that I was not keen on the idea of being naked in front of numerous others, including my host family! I told Yuko this and she arranged for a private onsen for Mom and I. Not your everyday mother/daughter bonding experience. In fact, that probably was once in a lifetime!
Another highlight in a ryokan is dinner. The feasting from the day before continued as we had just about every kind of Japanese food possible and it was all amazing. After a late night karaoke session (no night is complete without it!), Mom and I 'cheated' and opted for the western style beds rather than on the tatami matted floor. Hey, I had an exam in 36 hours; I had an excuse for why I needed a decent
night's sleep!
The next day we went to a monkey show, which is apparently a very popular thing to do with kids. Afterwards we went to a strawberry 'farm' (it was really just a greenhouse) and were treated to 1/2 hour of all you can eat strawberries. (The Japanese seem to be big on all you can eat in a certain amount of time, as it is also quite popular to go to all you can eat restaurants and you pay by the amount of time.) It was quite the trek home and we stopped for Korean barbeque, as if I needed anything more to eat! The next day was my exam so I got to pull an all nighter, fun.
At any rate, the trip was an extremely generous gift from Yuko to Mom, and it was lovely. I was happy I was able to get to someplace else besides Tokyo, but sad that it was nearly the end of my time in Japan.
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