So when I left the post, we'd just arrived in...
Nikko
While waiting for the rain to ease we grabbed some lunch at a Chinese restaurant that served predominantly Japanese food. We even dug out the phrase book to ask if the rain was going to ease up. The waiter assured us that it would so we set off towards the temple & shrine area. On the way we bought three pairs of shoes (one each for Cathy & I and a pair of ninja boots for Gene) and I bought a kimono. We also bought two umbrellas, so you can tell how the weather held up.
Nikko was a very picturesque part of Japan, but then again, I felt that way about most of the country. There were ancient bridges and many many temple buildings. Nikko seemed to be set in and around a series of forest covered hills and the rain just added to the beauty of our surroundings.
We were briefly amused by a gentleman in a cherry picker holding an umbrella (as it was raining) while apparently working with the power lines before we entered the temple & shrine area.
The temples were all stunning and I wished I could read Japanese so that I could have known more about what I was seeing. There was a school group having their school photos at the site while we were there and they took great pleasure coming up to us in small groups and saying hello and running away after we returned the greeting. I'm positive they all went home and proudly told their parents that they had practiced their English!
For awhile the rain just bucketed down but for about five minutes the rain just stopped and the sun came out. Within a minute the bronze-golden rooves of the various shrine buildings started to glow with an incredible shine and then the water started to evaporate.
We made our way through about five large temples & shrines that day before we headed to a small restaurant for a coffee.
After that Gene & I parted with his family as we had decided to stay the night in Nikko as we were hoping to enjoy the famous hot springs in the region.
When we arrived in Nikko that morning we'd booked ourselves into Nikko Park Lodge 日光パークロッジ. We weren't sure what to expect, but it was in our price range and there was a free pick-up from the train station where we'd booked the room.
It turned out to be a wonderful choice. We were picked up at the train station by the lodge owner and driven to the lodge. Our room was everything we needed, comfy bed and red velvet curtains that added warmth to the room. The bathroom was a great little "capsule" bathroom where the plumbing was linked to make the most of the space. The lodge owner also cooked us the most delicious vegetarian dinner that I've ever had. There was a seaweed omelette and salad with brown rice that you seasoned with roasted sesame & salt. Delicious! I'm planning to find the rice seasoning the next chance I get to go to a Japanese supermarket.
We didn't end up making it to the hot springs. The one we wanted to go to required a train and bus ride before a hike to the springs. We weren't sure that we were up to navigating the Japanese countryside just yet.
In the morning we headed back to Tokyo where I spent more money in one shop on my beloved Clover bamboo knitting needles and crochet hooks than I ever have. (Sarah's a very happy girl as you have no doubt gathered from previous posts and anyone who's seen me since our return).
While we were there we checked out the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices for a panoramic view of the city. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day so we didn't manage a glimpse of Mt Fuji. We also spent marginallly more time checking out the cool toys in the souvenir/toy shop that was on the same level as the observation deck.
After that it was back on the train to...
Narita
With our return flight the next day we decided to stay in Narita for our last night so that we could make the most of our last day in Japan.
I'd been really keen to stay in a ryokan, Japanese inn, so we booked ourselves into 桐之家旅館ホームページ - Kirinoya Ryokan. We'd read about this ryokan in the Lonely Planet's Guide to Japan and it mentioned something about a samurai museum so we just had to stay there. Again the pick up service was the inn keeper shuttling us in his car to our lodgings but we were also treated to a tour of Narita on the way. Restaurant district, shopping areas and more temples were pointed out to us before we arrived. It was wonderful! We were given two ajoining rooms with one as our bedroom and the other as our tea room.
After we'd settled in we headed back into town to have dinner. We were passed by groups of geisha, school kids and the odd tourist before arriving at a classy looking restaurant near the JR Narita Station. Gene decided to treat us to a lavish dinner to celebrate our last night in Japan and we went all out. There was a tataki-style beef dish, the best sashimi that I've ever eaten, a couple of inigari, grilled fish and much yakitori. We also sampled some sho chu and hoppy for our drinks and were quite happy with our choices.
Having overindulged ourselves we took a slow walk back to the ryokan before settling in for a quiet night of green tea and Japanese game show TV.
The next day we planned to go to Sakae Town, one train stop away from Narita to check out Boso-No Mura, an old samurai village where you could check out and get into the Edo periods crafts and culture. So while we were checking out we asked for directions. What we weren't expecting was the opportunity to actually don a 400 year old samurai helmet. The owner of the inn's family were middle class samurai back in the day and his family had kept many of the pieces of armour and artifacts through the generations. All of which were stored and displayed in this ryokan. Photos taken, directions memorised (exit the ryokan, turn left at the white sign, walk along the school, through the park, temple, temple, JR Narita station) and we headed off for our trip.
Through the park involved a fairly steep hill and several backyards before we arrived at the temples. We had a quick look in the Narita San-Shinshoji temple where there were people practising their Japanese calligraphy before winding our way through the backstreets of Narita to the train station.
Once we jumped on the train we paid careful attention to avoid missing our stop, Shimosa-Manzaki.
I was fairly apologetic to Gene as we exited the station to be greeted with by the one-shop town. We rapidly regretted our decision to dine there as there was nothing open while we were there. Not even "Snack Jealousy" the local cafe!
We had been assured that it was a short walk from the station by both the inn keeper in Narita and the sign post at the station. It was apparently a 2.2km walk but the undulating hills combined with our dodgy sign reading technique (matching the characters of signs to those on our pamphlet) made the walk seem much further. We stopped by a lake for a quick break before continuing on.
Eventually we arrived at Boso-No Mura but not before stopping at Doramu No Sato for lunch. We dined next to a great statue of a dragon made of plastic bottles before heading to our final tourist site.
Boso-No Mura was best described as Narita's answer to Sovereign Hill. It was very quiet there but we didn't let that put us off. While we were there we explored the main street where there were various stalls and exhibits. We checked out the samurai house and took part in a tea ceremony that was a little confusing but rather pleasant. We finished off our time there making origami signs with flowers and "Boso-No Mura" on them to take home for our mums. Our hopes of dressing up in full samurai outfits were shattered when we were advised that the exhibit was unavailable that day.
While we were at Boso-No Mura we were given a map that showed JR Aijiki station to be just around the corner. Our laziness got the better of us and we decided to walk to the closer station. We walked around the corner from Boso-No Mura. Then we walked some more. We stopped to ask directions and were told to keep walking. There was walking and some more walking. A bit more walking and we finally (an hour later) saw a sign pointing to Aijiki Station. There was another 45 minutes of walking at least before we finally caught sight of the station. It was then that we realised that the map had also said there was a shuttle bus that went from the station to the corner of Boso-No Mura and it was an eight minute ride. We arrived at the station to be greeted by the Doramu No Sato shuttle bus as well. The shuttle bus gods were against us that day.
With aching blistered feet and holes well worn through socks that day we boarded the train for Narita Airport where we finished our trip with a couple of bowls of ramen and a long flight home.
It was an amazing trip and a truly wonderful culture to have sampled. The travel bug has bitten and I can't wait to travel again!
No comments:
Post a Comment