Chuzenji Kanaya Hotel Nikko

... as I'd never have found the place otherwise. Got settled in, and donning my yukata, headed for the bath. Ahhh, I could get used to this.<br><br>But, I was going to talk about Toilets. For those of you who have never experienced a Japanese toilet, think lots of buttons. There's a button to warm the seat. There's a button to spray a bit of water on your backside (and another button to turn ...

... gestern aufgemacht, einen der ach so beruehmten Tempel und Schreine Nikkos zu besuchen. War ja auch sehr schoen... aber sonst gibt`s kaum etwas, dass junge Leute wie unser eins sehr ins Staunen versetzen koennte... (mal abgesehen von der schoenen Natur... wenn wir halt nur mehr Freude am Wandern haetten... ;)<br><br>Unser Jugendhostel war eher... naja. Ich wuerde sagen, das beste daran war das Japanische Bad. Das ist schon was feines, so eine ...

... and scallop), beef, tempura and some unknowns that tasted great. Washed down with a big, cold Asahi beer!<br><br>Then, bath time. Wow. First time in a Japanese bath. Private, not a sento, but hot enough to peel paint and just the thing for sore muscles. The whole Japanese process where you shower/rinse first, then get in the tub to soak.<br>

... Dorf (95 000 EW) an.<br>Unser Youth Hostel war nicht allzu schwer zu finden, ist aber im Vergleich zum Khaosan in Tokyo, ein RICHTIGES Youthhostel, wie mans sich schon eher vorstellt... ein bisl abge****t halt XD aber die Hosts sind echt nett, ein altes Ehepaar. Und wir haben seit gestern abend schon mehr Japanisch gesprochen als die letzten 10 Tage in Tokyo ;D<br><br>Heute gehts mal auf Tempeljagt. Hier solls echt schoene Exemplare geben. Also ist fuer ...

... hiked up the hill toward the temple and just enjoyed the scenery. The moist environment mixed with the pine tree forest makes for some really beautiful areas around Nikko. Different varieties of moss coat the forest floor and grow up and around the trees. If you have ever seen the forest scenes from "Princess Mononoke" it sort of reminded me of that. <br><br>The temple was interesting and quite large. I looked around it for the better ...

... Tobu Nikko station, I walked up to Rinnyoji temple by way of Shinkyo Sacred Bridge. It was farther and more boring than I had expected, but the long distance walk was a good exercise. <br><br>There was the shrine, Toshogu, just a few minutes walk away from Rinnyoji temple. That is the best spot of Nikko with elaborate architectures and fine arts. One of the most famous arts is "Three Wise ...

We left Tokyo on a train, headed North 2 hours to Nikko. We walked the 20 minutes to our hostel, which is in the woods near a river and walking trails. We were going to stay a 3rd night but the lodge was booked up so we decided to plan out the rest of our trip and only stay 2 nights there. <br><br>We have been buying breakfast foods from convience stores to save some money and we walked to the bus station for tourist ...

... y le asaltan por el camino. Al final acaba matandolos a todos. Habia bastantes saltos desde las alturas, luchas con espadas y patadas al aire. Como las peliculas.<br><br><br>En la entrada nos dieron un cuadrado de papel, que no sabiamos para que era, hasta que descubrimos que la gente ponia dinero en el centro, lo enrollaba y se lo tiraba a los actores cuando terminaban la actuacion, como a modo de propina. Con el dinero que nos costo la entrada, yo acabe tirandoles el ...

... didn't really care anymore, was just enjoying it. Ooh Interesting Factoid - the monkeys doing the see no evil blah blah comes from carvings on Toshogu. I found another secret garden which no-one except me cared about, yay. - Sanna.. has realised that the main purpose of Umbrella-san is to protect camera, not her. Best bit of day, perhaps trip. I had a map that nice ryokan-lady gave me in the morning, showing a park, and all she said as she circled it was ...

... see. He drove us there and even took some pictures with us and of us. We learned something new and exciting about dragonflies today...if you stick your finger out...soon you will have one perched on it. It's the coolest phenomenon ever. Who knew dragonflies were so friendly? I felt like a kid again running around trying to get dragonflies to land on me. One was more colorful than the next! Ken then drove us to the station, waited for us while we put our stuff ...