NICK: Nick-o in Nikko
Trip Start
Jan 25, 2006
1
7
106
Trip End
Ongoing
Nikko,
Japan
Tuesday, February 7, 2006
When we got there after our 4 hour train ride, we found it particularly freezing because it's in the mountains. We did a small trek from the train station to the tourist bureau. The main guy at the tourist bureau spoke really good english (better than most we've seen) and commented to Ash that he wanted to take some pics of a discussion with us to put in their pamphlet (note that I think he meant "her"; he looked at me once during the whole conversation) When his assistant came out and snapped a few pics, I have the odd feeling that she zoomed in on Ash talking to this guy, particularly at the angle that the assistant stood at.
01. Shin-Kyo Bashi (Shin-kyo bridge) in the mist
. So I have the feeling that she was included in the pamphlet.. I would love to see when they print it. Ah, the many interesting occurences of having a hot girlfriend. I guess I AM chopped liver.
When we stayed at the hotel that we had decided on, we found that the woman who worked the front desk didn't speak a lick of english. One thing that i've found is that I learn languages rather well, however, I have IMMENSE problems switching between english and another language.. if I'm going to speak in one, i'll stick to one, but it's hard to flop over to another language. I'm so impressed by those translators who can flip back and forth between several different languages. I will be there, at some point in my life. So with some miming, and childhood japanese we got a room(I keep forgetting about the super polite way of speaking japanese, so I think I offended her at some point by speaking really colloquially).
A cheap room in Nikko, during the off-season is 38 bucks a person. That is awesome in this country, considering that hostels with shared rooms are along those lines. I think this type of place is called a ryokan, which is kinda like a guest house, but traditional bed and breakfast
02. Ash in front of the Bell
. they had simple buddhist meals (which are really beautiful and are supposed to possess every type of taste, color and texture in the food) The meal was more expensive than we'd wanted, so we found some instant ramen (God, i love this stuff) and made it with the hot water heater that was in our room.Let me tell you about the instant ramen.. this is nothing like the cheap tasteless crap that you get in the US. This stuff is a full meal, complete with freeze dried sausage, hot sauce, sometimes corn and other stuff in it. It also is less than 2 dollars. Which is awesome. I'm scared to try to decipher the fat and salt content in it, purely because it will literally still my beating heart (with the cholesterol and high blood pressure this stuff is probably giving me, it'll kill me).
We wanted to do some more exploring, so we went up to the temple before it closed. The temple is beautiful in the mist. there's so much mist from the snow and rain, it was awe-inspiring. I think I got some good pics too. it made it hard to see certain features of the buildings, but they feel so mist-erious... ha! get it? we were slinging that one back and forth for a while.
Since we were there in the off-season, it was hard ot find a restaurant, but we finally found Japan's answer to Denny's: Skylark. With their low prices and tasty japanese food, it was the best thing we could find. Bottomless drinks, decent sized portions and high tech doorbells at the tables to call the waiter made this place a beacon in our starving eyes. AND, they were open late. Awesome.
03. Edge of a shrine
Ash and I got back to the ryokan and dressed in our yukatas (summer kimonos) and headed down to our respective baths. Apparently the women's bath was completely empty, but the men's bath had a teenager in there. I sucked it up at the potential for ridicule from a teenager and got naked. Apparently the way you walk around is very quickly, with your hand over your twig and berries. a couple of other guys came in while I was bathing and did this funny little dance over to their bathing stations.
Ah, traditional Japanese baths are interesting - you get undressed in a men's bathroom, go over to a small tap that is mounted to the wall. You sit on a small stool or bucket with a nother bucket for dumping water on you. You wash your hair/body and rinse yourself clean of all soap. You then head over for the bath where you sit and relax with your clean self and admire the fact that you're sitting naked in a giant bath, with a bunch of other naked strangers.
It's actually not bad.
The next morning we went out to the temple and saw all the temples out there. They were a bit of a sensory overload, they were so beautiful. Ash described it as if her head was going to pop [A: actually, I said it was gonna "explode" :-P] because of the beauty around her.
I concur.
Out.
