Maruya Ryokan 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 ...

... sprich gestern, das Wasser ausgelassen... was man ja eigentlich nicht tut, weil man sich ja eh vorher waescht bevor man reinsteigt... naja, dazu sind wir ja hier, um dazu zu lernen und nicht, um schon alles angeberisch zu wissen. Pft XD

So ca. in ner halben Stunde machen wir uns mit Freude auf zum Bahnhof, wo`s dann zurueck nach Utsunomiya geht, wo wir dann hoffentlich moeglichst problemslos einen Shinkansen Richtung Aomori bzw ...

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 ...

... Nachbarschaftsfestival, gleich um die Ecke von unsrem Hostel in Tokyo. War echt witzig, Japaner LIEBEN karaoke. Ich hab Beweismaterial XD

Gestern hats auch zum ersten Mal geregnet, seit dem wir hier sind. Hat uns also unsere eigenartige Aufbruchsstimmung noch verstaerkt. Aber heute ists wieder so sonnig und warm wie eh und je. Optimale Voraussetzungen fuer ne Wandertour, ne XD

Also, uns gehts nach wie vor super gut, abgesehen von etwas ...

... 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.

The temple was interesting and quite large. I looked around it for the better ...

... was its roar. The main hall of Toshogu was boring and I skipped the Sleeping Cat carving and Ieyasu's tomb, because I had to buy an extra ticket for them. The last important place to visit was Taiyuin temple, which is Iemitsu's tomb. It was simpler and more peaceful than Toshogu and I liked it.

The ticket for 2 shrines and 1 temple cost only 1000 yen and I think the price is ...

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 ...

... 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.


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 ...

... famosa por la cantidad de grabados y figuras que aparecen en sus cuatro costados. Es la foto que se utiliza para las guias de viajes. En este portal hay imagenes del emperador de la epoca, famoso por escuchar a sus subditos siempre que le necesitaban. A lo alto del portal, aparece dandose un banyo mientras escucha. Mas arriba, imagenes de ninos, pues estos representan el futuro del pais. Este templo era tan perfecto cuando lo construyeron que tuvieron que introducir un fallo ...