Here am I, trying this update again
I make no excuses for lack of updates. I was lazy. That is all.
Hmmm...last I left off, I was staying at the Palace Hotel Hakone?
Rating - beds: hard, pillows: flat. I didn't sleep that well honestly.
It's disturbing to turn on the TV the next morning, only to learn the typhoon has grown in size since we last saw it. Last night. On the TV. It's a big deal because it's the first one to hit land in the two years. It is typhoon season, no, they do not expect such things to hit them. Them = the Japanese.
...killow's at home. This whole time. AT HOME. Hopefully not reading the news.
The news says to keep away from the coastline. Coastline = bad. Danger, bad. Really really bad. Aaaaand we're supposed to go to along the coastline today.
I remembered to take the umbrella out of the suitcase!
Today, we visit Toshogu Shrine (final resting place of Tokugawa Ieyasu) & Kegon Waterfalls.
Ate breakfast, afterwards, we boarded a bus. (This part sounds familiar, oh wait, we did this every day.)
Toshogu Shrine was interesting. It was pretty despise the fact it was overcast & kinda rainy. But those steps. There were a ton of stone steps leading into the shrine, considering the rain, they were quite slippery, & no handrails...I was hoping not to fall & break anything important. Like my neck. There were also an optional tour to the top. Optional because it involved walking up 200 of those slippery stone steps. Nobody wanted to go. We had 3-4 people in the tour group who had a bum knee, not including myself.
With all the bus traveling, you'd think it'd be fairly bad, but the driver stopped fairly often. About every two hours or so, he'd stop at either a rest stop or in a town. Rest stops in Japan are different. It has restrooms, but they also have shops & food stands. It was at one of these rest stops that I satisfied my craving for takoyaki (finally!), while managing to disgust some people on the bus.
"Oooh that smells great! What is it?"
"Takoyaki."
"What's that?"
"Dough balls filled with octopus."
"..."
DO NOT DISRESPECT THE TAKOYAKI. And the ones I bought at this one rest stop were HUGE. Six for 400 yen. So. Good. My uncle stole one. x_x
ARRRGH. And he keeps going on about "I miss my dogs." Urge...to...kill...rising...
Kegon Waterfalls - touted as the most beautiful sight in Nikko - have to drive up Iroha Slope, 22 hairpin turns to the top, & 22 more turns back down. Except the weather sucks. We get to the top, look, hey I can hear the water...I can't see anything. I took a picture, for all the good it does. The pictures of the waterfall in the neighboring noodle shop were awesome though.
Got to the hotel in Kinugawa. The hotel (Kinugawa Gyoen) that we're in is a traditional Japanese inn, it's quite different than any of the other places we've stayed in. This place also has an onsen, & a banquet later that night.
Onsen! Hot bath! It was awesome! Except for the near slip in the outside bath! Why does it have to so far away! I liked the one at Hakone overall. Though the one in Mt. Shigi had a much better view.
The banquet was OK. It mixed some modern foods (miso with cheese) with traditional food, & there were some things I didn't like. I skipped the gelatinous fish head. Um, no...pass.
Had some issues with the camera. Don't know why some of that was really blurry. It kept trying to die on me at Toshogu Shrine too.
While everyone was at dinner, the hotel staff came in & took the bedding out. Traditional Japanese inn means, "sleep on futon on floor". I took another bath before going to sleep.
Hmmm...last I left off, I was staying at the Palace Hotel Hakone?
Rating - beds: hard, pillows: flat. I didn't sleep that well honestly.
It's disturbing to turn on the TV the next morning, only to learn the typhoon has grown in size since we last saw it. Last night. On the TV. It's a big deal because it's the first one to hit land in the two years. It is typhoon season, no, they do not expect such things to hit them. Them = the Japanese.
...killow's at home. This whole time. AT HOME. Hopefully not reading the news.
The news says to keep away from the coastline. Coastline = bad. Danger, bad. Really really bad. Aaaaand we're supposed to go to along the coastline today.
I remembered to take the umbrella out of the suitcase!
Today, we visit Toshogu Shrine (final resting place of Tokugawa Ieyasu) & Kegon Waterfalls.
Ate breakfast, afterwards, we boarded a bus. (This part sounds familiar, oh wait, we did this every day.)
Toshogu Shrine was interesting. It was pretty despise the fact it was overcast & kinda rainy. But those steps. There were a ton of stone steps leading into the shrine, considering the rain, they were quite slippery, & no handrails...I was hoping not to fall & break anything important. Like my neck. There were also an optional tour to the top. Optional because it involved walking up 200 of those slippery stone steps. Nobody wanted to go. We had 3-4 people in the tour group who had a bum knee, not including myself.
With all the bus traveling, you'd think it'd be fairly bad, but the driver stopped fairly often. About every two hours or so, he'd stop at either a rest stop or in a town. Rest stops in Japan are different. It has restrooms, but they also have shops & food stands. It was at one of these rest stops that I satisfied my craving for takoyaki (finally!), while managing to disgust some people on the bus.
"Oooh that smells great! What is it?"
"Takoyaki."
"What's that?"
"Dough balls filled with octopus."
"..."
DO NOT DISRESPECT THE TAKOYAKI. And the ones I bought at this one rest stop were HUGE. Six for 400 yen. So. Good. My uncle stole one. x_x
ARRRGH. And he keeps going on about "I miss my dogs." Urge...to...kill...rising...
Kegon Waterfalls - touted as the most beautiful sight in Nikko - have to drive up Iroha Slope, 22 hairpin turns to the top, & 22 more turns back down. Except the weather sucks. We get to the top, look, hey I can hear the water...I can't see anything. I took a picture, for all the good it does. The pictures of the waterfall in the neighboring noodle shop were awesome though.
Got to the hotel in Kinugawa. The hotel (Kinugawa Gyoen) that we're in is a traditional Japanese inn, it's quite different than any of the other places we've stayed in. This place also has an onsen, & a banquet later that night.
Onsen! Hot bath! It was awesome! Except for the near slip in the outside bath! Why does it have to so far away! I liked the one at Hakone overall. Though the one in Mt. Shigi had a much better view.
The banquet was OK. It mixed some modern foods (miso with cheese) with traditional food, & there were some things I didn't like. I skipped the gelatinous fish head. Um, no...pass.
Had some issues with the camera. Don't know why some of that was really blurry. It kept trying to die on me at Toshogu Shrine too.
While everyone was at dinner, the hotel staff came in & took the bedding out. Traditional Japanese inn means, "sleep on futon on floor". I took another bath before going to sleep.