Rindoko Royal Nasushiobara

... which I fell almost immediately. It's absolutely impossible to get any grip on the ledge! Then there was the salmon ladder which I had no hope on b/c I was worn out. Didn't even get the first rung. I'm convinced it's b/c the obstacle was meant for short people and I couldn't really use my whole body as momentum. I did make it through the ring maze halfway. I was holding on strong but my left arm could not get the ring above a ...

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?

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... ;)

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...

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 ...

... Dorf (95 000 EW) an.
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

Heute gehts mal auf Tempeljagt. Hier solls echt schoene Exemplare geben. Also ist fuer ...

... of the countryside and areas you may miss if you had travelled by air. It may just be me, but one really interesting thing about visiting other countries is just seeing where people live, namely their houses or dwelling places. When you ride the train you get to see stuff like that.

Nikko was a really beautiful town and the temperature was quite a bit cooler which was a welcome change from the humidity in Tokyo. The train ...

... 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.

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.

We have been buying breakfast foods from convience stores to save some money and we walked to the bus station for tourist ...

... trenes y andar veinte minutos. Casi nada. No se porque nos cansamos tanto.


Para cenar, compramos comida en el 7-Eleven: yo comi un burrito y un pastel de arroz y de postre un pastel de nata (como un milhojas).


A eso de las 9pm llegaron unos 25 ninos de Tokyo con sus monitores para hospedarse en el hostal, para entrenarse en Kendo.


Norito se ofrecio a imprimirnos el horario de trenes del Shinkansen entre Tokyo y Fukuoka para manana.

... y altos cargos podian seguir. En este estaba grabado el creston de la familia en honor a la cual se crearon estos edifios.
Mas adelante estaba la fuente para lavarse las manos y la boca antes de entrar. Antes de llegar a la famosa puerta de Yomaimon, habia un templete para la campana (Belfry tower) y otra para el tambor (Drum tower) y mas atras la pintura del dragon que ruge, llamada asi por el sonido del eco cuando se dan palmas en la sala.
La puerta de Yomaimon ...