2023 March - Nikko, Japan (Day 3 & 4)
Saturday, 1 April 2023 20:11![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elusivekOur next 2 days was in Nikko and a very short Yokohama visit.
It was a boring train ride to Nikko 日光. I did try to read some, but I was really uncomfortable. As I was warned about cold weather, I was overdressed and was feeling stuffy.
Lo and behold, when we got off at Nikko... I SEE SNOW ON THE MOUNTAINTOPS... but it was hot like something else there. I had to strip. It was still early-ish and we saw there was a deal on a "Nikko Passport" so we got it. It is a 2-day passport that includes the entry for a few places. If we went to all, it would be like 6000yen, but the passport cost 2400yen for all those places. In the end we didn't visit all, but we still got a significant amount of savings. I think we visited around 4000yen worth of entry fees.
We wanted to go to a famous local restaurant for Yuba (tofu cuisine?) but it was closed. Day after public holiday maybe? Along the way we found a stall with a yuba egg roll dashimaki tamago so we had a try. Next door was another restaurant for the yuba cuisine, so in we went.
First stop: Shinkyou 神橋
Mirror shot LOL. I had to muck around on the camera for a long time to get this shot. Meanwhile my friend shot me back LOL
I don't watch much (newer) animes and shows, but I know enough. I thought this bridge looked similar enough to that of Spirited Away. Though, we mis-judged on the distance. I should have been a couple of steps nearer to the camera to take this second shot.
I was totally overheating.
We then made our way to your ryokan for the night to drop off our heavier overnight bags, and continued exploring the area. I didn't exactly keep track of all the shrines and temples we visited, but I think we did see the following:
Rinno-ji temple Sanbutsu-do
Nikko Toshogu-shrine
Futarasan-shrine
Taiyuin Temple
Kanmangafuchi & Bake jizo
One of the highlights of this place had this sculpture of a sleeping cat. I don't recall exactly what it's about, but it was the sculptor that only sculpted this with his left hand or something (his right arm got chopped off or something). The funny thing was there's an amulet with this cat that's for....... Road Safety. I was amused because... it's a sleeping cat. How can you get road safety from a sleeping cat?
This one (on the left) if you look at the direction of the pattern you'll see it's different. I couldn't show the whole shot (my 50mm prime lens camera *rolls eyes*) so apparently in the whole shrine/temple all patterns are in one particular direction, but for that one pillar it's intentionally in the other direction. It was something about not making everything perfect (intentionally including some imperfections) so that you know there's room for improvement. The perfection in the imperfection, so to say.
We tried to visit another 2 shrines but soon understood why it was a 2-day passport... things closed by 4pm LOL. We decided to quickly go see another spot before sundown as we also marked our dinner for 6pm sharp. I think the way the ryokan would do it is, the patrons would take their baths and onsen and whatnot then dress in the yukata for dinner. But not us. We made a last ditch effort to see these little statues... I think they were graves at one point in time too.
The colors are a little foggy on this one because I used the papershoot camera (yeah I took all my gadgets with me. Not doing that again)
On our way bag, an auntie walked her Shiba Inu mix but that Shiba was demented LOL. I know in general Shiba Inus are pretty cool as in they don't play with people (usually), this one was hyper and barking at us, and tried to chew my hand. Luckily I'm a dog person and I just held my hand in a fist so it couldn't close its mouth LOL LOL LOL LOL.
We rushed back to the ryokan and barely made it hahaha. The staff were sort of insinuating that "they tried to call us in the room but we were not there, you're suppoed to be here at 5.50pm!!!
Before going for our night bath, we decided to go out again for the stars. Japanese streets are so clean it's OK to lie on the ground for photo taking.
Well at least the phone camera seems to be good enough to get a starry shot.
And then it was the following day!
We started the morning with another soak in the onsen. And this time for breakfast we went in our yukatas.
Nattou 納豆? No problem. I don't mind the smell. I don't mind the taste. I eat Cheese. I eat Chinese Century (Black) Eggs. I'm fine with nattou, LOL.
So we went and visited a few more places.
There's this place with a lot of bunny statues.
This Shuin made me laugh so much.... waaaayyyy toooooo much LOL. The night before we were talking about cheesy designs usually by the older generation Chinese. Then we saw this Shuin of... basically just this bunny but in various angles to fill up the sheet of paper... and that set us off to non-stop laughter all over again.
Random shots that I didn't mark the location, but these are all Nikko.
When we checked out, I saw this cute teapot design of a cat, so just for record and reference for me.
Then we made our way back to the train station, the JR station building is somewhat special apparently.
Went to top up my Suica and saw this logo thing in the train station. It's the 3 monkeys!
And then... made our way to Imaichi 今市 but by taxi... to do something only local tourists do... picking strawberries. The strawberries were so sweet, it was surreal. They gave us each a small bowl with a bit of condensed milk, but the strawberries were so sweet there was no need to dip into the condensed milk.
There was a bit of a blunder when we got back to the Imaichi train station. My friend wanted to see a particular special train but the lady at the ticketing counter just issued us the next train ticket, so we had no time to see the train or steam engine. My friend got pretty miffed about that and was rude to me for a bit. So I just ignored her for some 20 minutes and soon she chilled and we went back to planning.
She said we'd make a detour to Yokohama to see the Cup Noodles Museum. However, by the time we arrived they had sold out their tickets for the day, so we walked further down to the red brick building.
There was a restaurant with the spiffy omurice thing where the chef would flip the omelette over his back to the rice dish.
The rain wasn't letting up but there was nothing pressing to do so we walked back to the JR station. The cable car ride was a little too expensive for the walkable distance.
So in the end we went to the Ramen Museum. Silly side-by-side to see iPhone photo and papershoot photo. Hm.... okay.
Going down to the underground of the museum is a whole replica of an old street complete with a tuck shop.
For the record, the bottle in my hand is a ginger ale, not a beer!
Taking the train back to Asakusa...
A taiyaki shop was still open so we got taiyaki for late night snacks.
Admittedly, I was a bit miffed by my friend snarking at me. Before the trip she said she has a small bag with wheels and that I could put my overnight stuff in her bag, so I didn't need to carry it around. But then on the day, she said her wooly clothes took up all the space so I have to carry my own bag. Had I known it before hand I'd have brought my own carry-on size bag with wheels. But, I was an absolute angel and I did not make a scene or start a fight. I deserve sparkly stars for that!
It was a boring train ride to Nikko 日光. I did try to read some, but I was really uncomfortable. As I was warned about cold weather, I was overdressed and was feeling stuffy.
Lo and behold, when we got off at Nikko... I SEE SNOW ON THE MOUNTAINTOPS... but it was hot like something else there. I had to strip. It was still early-ish and we saw there was a deal on a "Nikko Passport" so we got it. It is a 2-day passport that includes the entry for a few places. If we went to all, it would be like 6000yen, but the passport cost 2400yen for all those places. In the end we didn't visit all, but we still got a significant amount of savings. I think we visited around 4000yen worth of entry fees.
We wanted to go to a famous local restaurant for Yuba (tofu cuisine?) but it was closed. Day after public holiday maybe? Along the way we found a stall with a yuba egg roll dashimaki tamago so we had a try. Next door was another restaurant for the yuba cuisine, so in we went.
First stop: Shinkyou 神橋
Mirror shot LOL. I had to muck around on the camera for a long time to get this shot. Meanwhile my friend shot me back LOL
I don't watch much (newer) animes and shows, but I know enough. I thought this bridge looked similar enough to that of Spirited Away. Though, we mis-judged on the distance. I should have been a couple of steps nearer to the camera to take this second shot.
I was totally overheating.
We then made our way to your ryokan for the night to drop off our heavier overnight bags, and continued exploring the area. I didn't exactly keep track of all the shrines and temples we visited, but I think we did see the following:
Rinno-ji temple Sanbutsu-do
Nikko Toshogu-shrine
Futarasan-shrine
Taiyuin Temple
Kanmangafuchi & Bake jizo
One of the highlights of this place had this sculpture of a sleeping cat. I don't recall exactly what it's about, but it was the sculptor that only sculpted this with his left hand or something (his right arm got chopped off or something). The funny thing was there's an amulet with this cat that's for....... Road Safety. I was amused because... it's a sleeping cat. How can you get road safety from a sleeping cat?
This one (on the left) if you look at the direction of the pattern you'll see it's different. I couldn't show the whole shot (my 50mm prime lens camera *rolls eyes*) so apparently in the whole shrine/temple all patterns are in one particular direction, but for that one pillar it's intentionally in the other direction. It was something about not making everything perfect (intentionally including some imperfections) so that you know there's room for improvement. The perfection in the imperfection, so to say.
We tried to visit another 2 shrines but soon understood why it was a 2-day passport... things closed by 4pm LOL. We decided to quickly go see another spot before sundown as we also marked our dinner for 6pm sharp. I think the way the ryokan would do it is, the patrons would take their baths and onsen and whatnot then dress in the yukata for dinner. But not us. We made a last ditch effort to see these little statues... I think they were graves at one point in time too.
The colors are a little foggy on this one because I used the papershoot camera (yeah I took all my gadgets with me. Not doing that again)
On our way bag, an auntie walked her Shiba Inu mix but that Shiba was demented LOL. I know in general Shiba Inus are pretty cool as in they don't play with people (usually), this one was hyper and barking at us, and tried to chew my hand. Luckily I'm a dog person and I just held my hand in a fist so it couldn't close its mouth LOL LOL LOL LOL.
We rushed back to the ryokan and barely made it hahaha. The staff were sort of insinuating that "they tried to call us in the room but we were not there, you're suppoed to be here at 5.50pm!!!
Before going for our night bath, we decided to go out again for the stars. Japanese streets are so clean it's OK to lie on the ground for photo taking.
Well at least the phone camera seems to be good enough to get a starry shot.
And then it was the following day!
We started the morning with another soak in the onsen. And this time for breakfast we went in our yukatas.
Nattou 納豆? No problem. I don't mind the smell. I don't mind the taste. I eat Cheese. I eat Chinese Century (Black) Eggs. I'm fine with nattou, LOL.
So we went and visited a few more places.
There's this place with a lot of bunny statues.
This Shuin made me laugh so much.... waaaayyyy toooooo much LOL. The night before we were talking about cheesy designs usually by the older generation Chinese. Then we saw this Shuin of... basically just this bunny but in various angles to fill up the sheet of paper... and that set us off to non-stop laughter all over again.
Random shots that I didn't mark the location, but these are all Nikko.
When we checked out, I saw this cute teapot design of a cat, so just for record and reference for me.
Then we made our way back to the train station, the JR station building is somewhat special apparently.
Went to top up my Suica and saw this logo thing in the train station. It's the 3 monkeys!
And then... made our way to Imaichi 今市 but by taxi... to do something only local tourists do... picking strawberries. The strawberries were so sweet, it was surreal. They gave us each a small bowl with a bit of condensed milk, but the strawberries were so sweet there was no need to dip into the condensed milk.
There was a bit of a blunder when we got back to the Imaichi train station. My friend wanted to see a particular special train but the lady at the ticketing counter just issued us the next train ticket, so we had no time to see the train or steam engine. My friend got pretty miffed about that and was rude to me for a bit. So I just ignored her for some 20 minutes and soon she chilled and we went back to planning.
She said we'd make a detour to Yokohama to see the Cup Noodles Museum. However, by the time we arrived they had sold out their tickets for the day, so we walked further down to the red brick building.
There was a restaurant with the spiffy omurice thing where the chef would flip the omelette over his back to the rice dish.
The rain wasn't letting up but there was nothing pressing to do so we walked back to the JR station. The cable car ride was a little too expensive for the walkable distance.
So in the end we went to the Ramen Museum. Silly side-by-side to see iPhone photo and papershoot photo. Hm.... okay.
Going down to the underground of the museum is a whole replica of an old street complete with a tuck shop.
For the record, the bottle in my hand is a ginger ale, not a beer!
Taking the train back to Asakusa...
A taiyaki shop was still open so we got taiyaki for late night snacks.
Admittedly, I was a bit miffed by my friend snarking at me. Before the trip she said she has a small bag with wheels and that I could put my overnight stuff in her bag, so I didn't need to carry it around. But then on the day, she said her wooly clothes took up all the space so I have to carry my own bag. Had I known it before hand I'd have brought my own carry-on size bag with wheels. But, I was an absolute angel and I did not make a scene or start a fight. I deserve sparkly stars for that!
