c9 | Tokyo Day 5

Day five found us escaping the big city and heading off into the countryside!

Above, the easy-to-understand train map as we traveled, and below proof that we made it there! Our photographer was a great guy from Atlanta we met the previous night, who had been planning to visit Nikko the same day as us anyway. Great to have another friendly face along for the trip!

The trip was made using a foreigners-only pass called the World Heritage Pass, which gave free entrance to three different temples, bus tickets for use in the city of Nikko to get to the temples, and the train ride from Tokyo to Nikko to! Great deal, only 3600 yen. We upgraded the pass for another 1800 yen to get faster trains - not bullet trains sadly, but still 50% faster (less stops).

It was actually quite the trip to get there. We took the JR regional express train from our hotel's station out to another station, switched to a local train for two stops, exited the station and walked downstairs into the subway station (unexpected; I missed a clue on this in my planning I think) for just two stops (1km), and then walked about 500m to the Tobu train station. This was another train company, and the World Heritage Pass only left from this one station. That train took us north, but we had to transfer trains (only a 2 minute wait!) to actually get into Nikko.

Nikko is about two hours north of Tokyo, and has many ancient shrines and temples, some nestled in the woods (at left), and some out in the open. We got multiple maps of the area but it proved a bit tricky to uncover which specific temple we were in at any given time.

It was a school day, and many MANY students were also there on school field trips. Several times we were touring a temple essentially alone, and then suddenly we were surrounded by 50-75 kids and their teachers. All quiet and respectful, but they still took up a lot of space!

One time, as the kids were filing by, I made the mistake of smiling and nodding a bit. This was taken as a bow by a polite ten-year-old, who bowed back (just a bit - he hardly knew me after all) and the kids behind him then all did so as well. We ended up being bowed at by about 30 kids all in a row. A hoot!

At right, the original "see no evil hear no evil speak no evil" monkeys! (carved in wood, above our heads. At first we were looking through the grating to find actual monkeys, but that's just a horse stable.

Tyler insisted that we get a shot of us mimicking the monkeys - I guess just this once. Vin was not interested in being in the photo, but was happy to take the picture. Well, willing. Maybe not happy. "I traveled 10,000km for this?" his eyes seemed to say.

Fortunes tied to a fence/rack/display, for those who want their fortune to not come true and wish to leave it behind. Beautiful, but it's hard to tie paper in a knot! I ripped my fortune, and had to figure out a way to get it attached again.

The temples were nestled in the mountains, so lots of hills and rocks and waterfalls to see, which was beautiful. It was hard to believe we were in Japan sometimes (well, the temples made it obvious I guess) because the foliage was so similar to BC -- just a smidgen different in size or shape sometimes. But very greengreengreen, mossy, and familiar to anyone who's been to BC or Seattle.

Here's me, sitting by one such waterfall, at the base of the long staircases leading up to a famous mausoleum. You can read more about the sights of Nikko here.

At left, a better view of one of the many gateways we walked through on the climb up.

Ugh, the formatting on these posts is getting horrible as I lean on the photos to tell more story as I forget stuff! Sorry about that, dear readers.

After some time in the temples, we took the bus back to the train station, and the train up to another area called "Kinugawa Onsen" -- an onsen is basically a hot springs. The town -- which looked just like Banff, it was weird -- had fountains and ponds all over but with hot water! There were over a dozen different hot springs options nearby, and we chose one from the brochure we had which was located inside a hotel. It was great, but I'm sure there are even fancier ones awaiting us on our next trip.

This onsen had both indoor and outdoor sections, and was single-sex. We could hear women giggling on the other side of the wall when we were outside though. Hopefully not giggling at us.

The way it worked was first we had a long and very challenging conversation in Japanese about the cost (840 yen each), whether we needed towels (200 yen, the size of a facecloth), and whether we wanted some other mystery thing that was 300 yen but she didn't know the English word for. We said no, but maybe it was a bigger towel? We'll never know!

After the conversation, she complimented us on our Japanese, which just boggles the mind. I guess we pronounced our few words very skillfully.

We were led into the changing room, where we had to leave behind all clothes. Therefore, this is the last photo! It's a shame, because we all look really good naked. Your loss.

Next step, a shower. It's important to clean off completely before getting in, but the shower was essentially just a half stall with an overturned plastic bucket to sit on, and a shower head. To turn on the water I had to hit the button repeatedly, as it would stop far too soon. The water in the actual baths was soooo hot, it was really nice. Too hot actually. We got out of the water and showered off a couple times. There were three big wooden baths, kind of like above ground pools, indoors, and then outside down some stone steps there was a natural-ish rock formation with a hot pool as well. Not naturally formed, but the water was direct from the springs at least.

After the onsen we grabbed some snacks from the 7-11 and enjoyed the sunset while we waited for the next train. That train took two hours to get back to Tokyo, and we basically reversed our morning commute.

At right, a common sight in Tokyo (and in Asian restaurants worldwide): fake food! Wax versions of the menu, to help you decide whether you want to eat there or not. They usually looked so good! Not sure how they manage that.

There were many places without this, and in fact many places which were restaurants with no windows, or English markings, so we never would have found them without outside help. At least these places could be our safety net if we were starving to death. No danger of that though.

Another odd thing Tokyo has to offer: Cat Cafés. Locals will pay money to sit and pet cats.

No seriously. I don't totally get it either.

There were people handing out cat café flyers, and this sandwich board was near our hotel.

I think I've finally figured out how the cats can start earning their fair share!

One thing that I found (and might have already mentioned) is how social Tokyo was. We met new people every single day, and it was far more friendly than anywhere else we've ever been. Americans, Australians, Brits, Frenchmen, other Canadians... it was great!

Some photos of our new friends - most of whom I didn't get contact info for, so I'll probably never see them again, dammit! I tried searching on Facebook, but a search like "Jack, from France" is not very precise. *sigh*

Tyler, Vincent, Billy from Atlanta, and me.

James, Jack, Thomas, and ? from France, and Tyler.

Me, Charlie from London, and Andrea from Rome.

OK, just kidding, that last photo isn't of friends. But the ground crew at the airport when we were leaving lined up beside the plane and waited for us to start taxiing, and then they all waved at us! It was so nice!

For my final photo in the story, I think this is the best image I have in my head for our entire trip. A tiny tiny TINY restaurant, incredibly tasty food, and it's all hidden just behind our hotel and we never even spotted it until our final morning before heading for the airport. It's called Yakitori Alley, and it consists of a couple dozen yakitori (chicken on a stick, BBQ'd) shops. They also have stew, alcohol, and that's about it. Those who can read Japanese probably have more menu options, but that's what we had. Soooo tasty. This photo is taken from the alley itself. Notice the stairs to the rest of the building (possibly her home?).