Kinugawa Kanko Hotel Annex Nikko

Toured the temples at Nikko today. Very impressive, but the fact that everything was in Japanese (no English) and I don't know much about Buddism, it was really a matter of walking around and admiring these cool buildings. I bought a picture book rather than trying to take a bunch of amateurish photos - maybe I can get my daughter to translate?<br><br>Because of this, touring the site only ...

... 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 ...

Note to self: Don't create passwords with strange characters when you're going to have to use a foreign keyboard...<br><br>Returned to the ryokan for dinner and met some of the other guests. Two couples from Australia and one from Germany. Had (an amazing) dinner with the Ozzies. Eventually I'll get photos up, but think fish, rice, sashimi ...

Nun, gestern haben wir schweren Herzens mein geliebtes Tokyo hinter uns gelassen und haben unsere erste Shinkansenfahrt gen Nikko angetreten. <br>Es gab ein paar Zeitprobleme, allerdings fahren diese Zuege so ca. alle 20 min, darum war das dann auch nicht wirklich ein Problem. Allerdings kamen wir genau wie vorhergesagt, jedoch nicht wie geplant irgendwann nach 6, also dann, als schon finster war, in der menschenleeren Kleinstadt... naja, im Vergleich zu ...

... of the day. One of the most famous things about the temple is a wood carving with the "Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil, See No Evil" monkeys adorning it. <br><br>Unfortunatley I didn't get up to see Kegon waterfall which I hear is really beautiful. There is also a lake above Nikko which is also quite beautiful. Both of these places can be reached by special bus but since it was late in the day I decided to head back to Tokyo. <br><br> <br>

... It is a part of decoration of the sacred horse stable and the carvings showing the life of monkeys are displayed around the stable. On the opposite side, the most impressive architecture of Nikko, Yomeimon gate stood there. But I remembered that I should see another thing before going through the gate, which was listening to Roaring Dragon in the next hall. Honestly, I didn't know ...

... They were very helpful and we got public bus tickets, expensive $20 (like everything else here) and rode out a half hour up a windy mountain road to Chuzen-ji Lake. From the bus stop we walked 300 meters to Kegon Falls, pretty nice as far as falls goes, similiar but not as nice as Akaka Falls, Hawaii... I'm just saying. Then we walked to the lake and was a little bummed out by the hiking trail options and it started to ...

... pesas de piedra. <br><br><br>Finalmente, vimos otro show donde la geisha manipulaba pequenos chorros de agua con las manos y con su abanico. Yo creo que habia botones en el suelo para controlar los chorros. Imagino que para los crios el show estaria bien. <br><br><br>Habia tambien un templo que parecia de plastico, para que los estudiantes pudieran rezar para obtener buenas notas y un canalillo con carpas. <br><br><br>Para regresar al hostal tuvimos que coger un autobus ...

... my feet up and watch womens volleyball on TV (the only thing I can make sense of in Japanese). Random Observation 2: every time a Polish player does something good the TV shows the height of the player on the bottom of the screen but when a Japanese player does something good...nothing. As if to say Polish players are good only because they are way taller...I may be reading too much into this I know but thought it was an interesting tidbit that needed to be shared.

... we could never get away with in Hunny! On the day we arrived (at 6.30am) we went to the East Gardens and fell asleep on the grass for 2 hours (it was an unseasonably warm day). We also have been up to the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building no 1. (South). Here they had a free observation room and you got amazing views all across the city. The red light district (in Kabukicho) was a bit disappointing ...