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Published: April 1st 2007
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M and C Torii
Look at the size of that thing! Ho everyone - the saga continues...
... Day 6 - starting the day early we ate the last slice of birthday cake (yes i know it seems like ages ago that we bought it - but is still tasted great, a little like seaweed still but great).
Leaving the comfort of our international youth hostel, we headed for Tokyo Station where we were planning to exchange our exchange order for our 14 day rail pass. After some rough directions from the ticket man we found the right desk and bingo - we had our shiny new rail pass! this may not seem exciting to you but to us this meant freedom and a ticket out to the rest of Japan!
Making our way onto the platform we had our first up close and personal experience of Japans famous Shinkansen (bullet trains) - i have to say i am no train spotter however it was very exciting! The first train that pulled up wasn't actually ours, however to our amazement, it stopped - the seats then turned 180 degrees to face forwards again for its onward journey! How cool
Boarding our train, we took in the views
and arrived miles and miles and miles away in Utsonomiya 50 mins later where we changed to our 'put put' train to Nikko which was a considerably slower affair.
After a short hike up a steep hill we arrived at our guest house where we were met by a very smiley Kiyoko san who showed Mark 'san' where everything was. It really was a lovely guest house which happened to be the cheapest we could find in the area (have a look at the pic - result!)
Dropping our bags, we were off again to take in Nikko's world heritage sites. On the way we stopped at the Shin-kyo bridge which was the site where a monk was apparently transported across the river by two serpents (ok then) and which marks the entrance to the wooded temples.
The temples and shrines (Rinno-ji, Tosho-gu and Futurasan-Jinja) there were amazing and well worth the train ride into the mountains for. Although this was the first attraction we actually had to pay for (about 1000 yen or 5 pounds per person for a combination ticket) it was well worth it. Something that wasn't made clear in the guide books was
that all of the sites were very close to one another - which was a relief for our slightly weary legs!
We spent a good couple of hours seeing the Temples and Shrines before making our way toward town for lunch - we found an amazing cafe called Hikkari Dako which is famed in the area for being a bit of a travellers haven - it did not disapoint and was a real experiance with notes and pictures of past travellers covering the walls. We were greeted by a larger then life lady who served us green tea as we ordered a feast of yakatori chicken, rice and noodles all for about 4 pounds - it was great and just what we needed! After lunch we also wrote a note to add to the many others on the wall!
Refreshed and ready to go, and despite the drissle of rain, we then left our lunch retreat and headed off the beaten track to find the stone children along Gamman-Ga-Fuchi Abyss. This was a weird and wonderful experience in a much more secluded out of town area where it is famed that the number of statues changes each time you
Shin-Kyo Bridge
Serpents! what serpents? count them - with one of the statues said to laugh at any traveller stupid enough to try - I'm really not kidding this is all in the guide book! So, being the stupid travellers we are, we set about counting the statues only to both come out with different numbers! Still a bit bemused but having then tried to count them together and coming out with around 80 we were satisfied that the traveller mocking statue must be absolutely pissing himself. We then set about the jouney home to Kiyoko san at the Minshuku Narusawa Lodge.
We took the evening to relax when a huge thunder storm hit Nikko. This was a thunder storm like no other i have ever experienced though. The first time the thunder hit i thought it was an earthquake (which are quite frequent in Japan) as it physically shook the whole house! Once we realised that the earth was not moving and it was just a torrential down pour and electricity arching down to the town, we relaxed and watched the show.
All the best - our promise to keep it short and sweet has obviously not payed off yet!
Love Mark and Chrissie
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Paul and Claire
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Jealous
Hi guys. Looks like you're having a great time. the photos are fab, takes my mind off revision for my exam. Only a tiny bit jealous, but thanks for sharing your adventure with us all. Have fun Paul and Claire