I love Japan, and always will. It's a perfect marriage of past, present, and future. There're meikos, geikos and geishas entertaining tired businessmen in tiekwood teahouses, shinto shrines rising up between office buildings, women walking down the street in traditional kimonos and dolce and gabbana bags, and well-dressed school-children checking out the futuristic sony inventions. The best part of all is that it's all genuine. The Japanese don't put on a show because the tourists are there to watch. Sumo doesn't exist as an over done attraction, along with teiko drumming, pachinko, flower arranging, and tea ceremonies. Japan would still hold onto it's history and identity, even if the rest of the world stopped watching. I hopped on the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Nikko within an hour of arriving in Japan. Nikko is home to the
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