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Ohio!
"Mountaineering" is the category today, because that was what we had intended to do. We got up early again so that we could catch a bus to Mt. Fuji - but for the first time since we arrived, the sky was full of clouds! We were rammed into a train, busier than anything I've seen in London, and once everyone had disembarked (all at the same stop), we had a little think. No way were we going to go to see Fuji if we couldn't actually see it, which was definately the case today. So we came back and decided to go somewhere else; somewhere magical!
Nikko was that magical place, although by the time we got there, it only had an hour left of being open, so we had to madrush through it. The main sight closed early - half past four - and it was already twenty past! We ran; and ended up running up a huuuuge flight of stairs that might as well have been a mountain! It was knackering, but well worth it; at the top was the tomb of the warlord who conquered all of Japan and established the shogunate.
There was plenty else to see in Nikko too. Shrines, temples, and stone monkeys preaching "See no evil; speak no evil; hear no evil." Nikko was also the location of the famous five-story pagoda, a picture that I've already used on the blog before (now we have our own - the pictures aren't uploading at the moment, but we're taking on an internet cafe tomorrow so stay tuned). My favourite part of the day was the views; hills full of trees as far as you could see. It was a much more natural Japan than the Tokyo we've been seeing so far.
The train journeys may have been long, but they provided a brief look through the windows at areas that we wouldn't have seen otherwise. Tomorrow we're staying at a traditional inn; something I'm really looking forwards to! I'm also looking forwards to the lie in; the solid week of non-stop travelling and sightseeing has knackered both me and Joe, so we'll be taking full advantage of our 11am checkout time!
Ryan x
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