Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Heyy, all is well here, everone is having a great time and the weather is still gorgeous :)
So, today we had a pretty early start as we were catching the 8 O'clock train to Nikko. It was already 29 degees though! :O
So we stocked up from drinks from the little vending machine things (they are everywhere, you are never without access to a drink) and set off on the train. The journey was about 2hrs 30mins and we had all sorts of scenary. As we left Tokyo, we had all the sky scrapers and buildings, and then we reached the suburbs and were overloaded with little villages and weird moped looking things and sooo many rice paddies! Then, about 30mins before arrival, we began to see the outlines of the mountains and they were beautiful :) They were pretty high and were covered in tress and bushes which made them look really squishy, but they still looked like 'proper' mountains (triangles LOL).
When we got to Nikko and left the train station, we grabbed some lunch and headed for the hills....
It was soo hot and pacing it up the street was a beast! there were loads of little shops to look in along the way though so we got distracted (monday is like a sunday in england, the shops are closed, so as it was a sunday, the shops were still open).
At the top of the hill, there was the coolest phonebox ever (hence the picture hehe) which needed a special mention.
There was then the Emperor's bridge, which you couldnt walk on, but it was still used for ceremonial purposes such as festivals where various artifacts from the shrines in the hills that we visited are carried through Nikko. The bridge was originally for private use by the emperor as a means of crossing the river during warfare (i think) as an easy acces route to the other side.
Up another hill on the other side of the river and we had reached the Tosho-Gu shrine (among others). The first thing you reached was a gate leading onto a large area containing the pagoda. The pagoda was huuuuge and was really colourful considering its age...
There was then a series of steps and you came to a whole area of various shrines which must have spread out over an area of about 100m squared, qhich may not sound that big, but considering there were about 7 buildings crammed into it, there was a lot to take in! All these building were in a specific order and they were clearly of great importance to the Japanese as many were crowding round a building called the 'Sacred Stable' which had many wooden carvings of the three monkeys.
There were stone lanterns everywhere and these were built by every Diamyo who had been in residence at the shrines which was to divert their money to a better cause to prevent them from spending it on raising an army and going to war.
Through Yomeimon Gate and we reached the Karamon area of the shrines. In this area is where there is a carving of a sleeping cat. It is supposed to be good luck to the Japanese wheras I thought it looked quite cute!
There was then a path through the trees and a series of VERY STEEP STEPS up to the shrine of the first Shogun. BUT, before you reached that, there was of course, in this most sacred of places, a GREEN TEA VENDING MACHINE!!! LOL handy eh?! ;)
Anyway, there was a lot of bowing and clapping from people who stood infront of a little collection of artifacts, whereas Amanda an I just strolled on past and took photos! Although, were weren't rude about it, it's just i didn't think the Japanese would appreciate our attempt at praying to the Gods, so we did our own thing... :P
The shrine of the first shogun was a quite small, there wasnt much to see, it was just a few stone carving but it was more about the importance of what was there than the actual appearance.
We then retraced our steps and went into another building (after having taken our shoes off) and went squeaking along the corridors of highly polished wood. We then got mobbed by loads of young children (presumably on a school trip) and I started getting spoken to. (I felt a bit uneducated though because these 8 (ish) year old children could speak to me in english, but i couldn't say anything back to them in Japanese! :( ). We followed them into a big hall (where everyone was going) and found ourselves in the middle of some random assembly/ceremony for the shrine..... Sooooo we made a very quick exit!
Before we had time to get our shoes on and squeak back out of the building, we found ourselves in the middle of a very heavy rain shower! Which made a welcome change from the constant sun :) So we perched on the veranda to stay dry for a while to sit it out, only to find ourselves mobbed by hyper school children every 5 mins as they entered and left the assembly thing! It was maaadd! but very funny :P
The rain lasted about 30mins and from there we again went to various shrines from the same area. after walking up some more hills and around about the place (through woods, up steps) we stopped for some sliced ice :) it turned out to be quite the culinary delight as you watched them use this machine to slice a load of ice into a little bucket and then squirt this unhealthily bright liquid (of you flavour choosing) all over it. Saying that, they were very nice, and had the added bonus of turning you tongue (and in Amandas case, whatever she spilt it on) the colour of your sliced ice, which is always rather funny! :P
From here, we went into the gardens, and pootered around and watched the dragonflies all around the water. There were also some abnormally large carp in the water which were a bit of a shock the first time i saw them...!
We then caught the bus back down the hill to the train station and stopped for a drink. Amanda had a coke float and I chose a Melon Soda! Which turned out to be a good choice as it came with its very own light up mat whenever you put the drink on it! It was soo cool and kept changing colour! I think Amanda was jealous tbh, she didnt even get a normal coaster, pffftt! AMATEUR! But yeah, you could buy them from the cafe and everything, and Amanda was extremely tempted :P
The train home was good, we were all a bit exhausted though and I fell asleep whilst adding the odd contribution to the big crossword everyone was attempting from the english newspaper amanda had nabbed from the plane! haha, and im proud to say, it was a team effort, but we did it LOL.... :)
We stopped off for dinner in Shinjuku at a little spot that John had found under the railway line! was good to walk all through Tokyo at night and the buildings look completely different because the lights highlighted different shapes in the dark and so they looked like completely different buildings altogether! But its cool, so many lights...
But, much to my despair (and most probably emilys delight) I HAVE TANLINESSSS!!!!! Im not that burnnt, just tanned, but it is obvious where my straps were, even though I was wearing factor 50+ !!!! Humpfff
Ahh well, having loads of fun and I can't wait to get up in the mornings :) (for once!)
Lots of Love xxxxx
- comments