At this point probably nobody is reading these, but I'd like to at least have a record.
5/18
This was a very nice day. For the first time on the trip I had a very traditional japanese breakfast, home cooked by Ku-chan.Firmly decided I did NOT like natto. After we ate and dressed we piled into her car and headed out to Nikko. The ride was long and sadly even gorgeous countryside Japanese scenery couldn't keep me awake. Moving vehicles put me to sleep instantly. After a failing at keeping a conversation going, Ku-chan ordered me to sleep. Which I did. Promptly.
I woke up a few minutes before we arrived and then we both tried to figure out where to park. We managed to find a nice free lot near one of the shrines. The day was absolutely gorgeous, it was warm but breezy. After figuring out where exactly we were, we headed up to the
Toshougu Shrine. The entrance was pricer than I expected and possibly the most expensive non-zuka attraction I encountered on the trip. Though it was fun nonetheless.
Ku-chan and I discovered that it was also a day that many schools were doing their trips as well and there were a bunch of tours all over the place. We piggy backed on a few of the school tours. Ku-chan translated anything I didn't understand and I was really amazed at the rich stories. Though, she was a bit cynical about the shrine since apparently it was one of the younger ones and it was incredibly gaudy. Also she felt cheated when we discovered that the famous
Sanzaru and
Nemuri-neko were incredibly tiny carvings in the vast decor of the buildings. I for one was incredibly fascinated by all of the gaudy decor on the doors, gates, and windows. Everything in that place had a story and meaning, even some iron and copper lamps that looked like junk. i personally loved the beautiful carvings of the monkeys and how they depicted the cycle of a human life. The famous image is only one of many in a beautiful carved panel that wrapped around a building. The nemuri-neko carving was very beautiful too and actually very lifelike for its medium and period style. Ku-chan liked to play sensei and ask me what I thought different things meant before explaining them to me after listing to the tour guide.
The one thing that unnerved me slightly was seeing the remains of Tokugawa Ieyasu. I was never very comfortable around graves and even less around historical ones. Plus, I was morbidly amused that in only a few days I'd be seeing Kotobuki Tsukasa as Tokugawa in Utsukushiki Shougai. Heh. Plus it was completely overruled by the super cute grade school kids having issues getting up the stairs without adult help. One adorable little boy tried to take each step at a hop. It was killing us.
Also we walked through the inner shrine and got a rather interesting presentation. Apparently if you clap two blocks together at a very specific point in the shrine, it sounded like the roar of the dragon painted above. The monk did that for us and it was very impressive.
After we had seen everything there was to see there we left and tried to find food. We managed to spend all morning in the shrine. Though to our luck most places were closed for some reason... we finally found ourselves at the tourist center and asked the lady what would be a good place to eat and locations for onsens and the waterfalls. Eventually we found ourselves back up where we started because one of the restaurants she recommended was up that way. The place was closed and we got frustrated. Eventually, Ku-chan decided to walk into a sake shop.... and buy sake for my parents. Okay then. Though that proved to be fruitful since the guy basically said to ignore tourist center lady and gave us better recommendations for places that were actually open. Apparently there was some kind of local holiday going on?
We put the sake bottle in the car and then drove to the waterfall that was the furthest out,
Urami watefalls. Just like the sake guy told us there was this really nice soba place up there. It was DELICIOUS. It was a nice lesson in how to properly eat cold soba. So, so so good. Afterwards, we trapised around like lost ducks trying to figure out which way it was to the waterfall. There were no signs... just a bunch of pretty flowers. Eventually we figured it out and it was quite the hike. The view of the waterfall was beautiful, incredibly beautiful. There is something to be said for the natural beauty of Japan. Also apparently it wasn't a common foreign tourist attraction. It was beautiful and fun.
Once we had our fill we left that rea to go to up further to
Lake Chuuzenji. Once again, I was incredibly amazed by the beauty of the place. It was a bit cold, but it was so serene and lovely. After that we went to
Kegon Falls which was also another lesson in the natural beauty of Japan. Ku-chan though was sad that the flowers weren't in full bloom so I couldn't get the true season beauty... then promptly made the beauty morbid by telling me about the famous suicide of
Misao Fujimura and all the sucides afterwards. Thanks Ku-chan.
Upon comming out of the elevator that took us down to the falls (It was built in the 30s!), I spied a omiyage shop. I spent 3000 yen in omiyage for various people. Heh. Afterwards... I don't really remember what we did, but she did egg me on to go to an onsen.
Well. That was an experience I'm still can't decide if it was good or not. Without going into too much detail... the general atmosphere was great. It was very relaxing and felt really good after walking so much. Plus it had gotten chilly in the afternoon and the hot water was nice. The bad of it is... that I'm too American and had a mildly hard time getting past being nude with my friend. It was incredibly embarassing as I didn't know where to look and hide. I mean... the onsen was a very local one and I was very very obviously foreign. Even so it was a nice experience and it made me even sleepier for the ride home. I didn't even try to stay awake.
That evening Kumi made us this really delicous dish of various kinds of mushrooms and greens. Also, we had some cake that she had picked up the previous day. Then we both just vegged around and talked. She worked on some work emails and I worked on letters since Nijinsky raku was tomorrow. We both went to bed early since we both had to be up early to takkyubin my luggage to Manda's and for me to get on the shinkansen.
Next: Nijinsky Raku