Wednesday. 1 Feb 2006 (Pictures of Nikko)
The people here wake up early man. I planned to get up at 7am but of coz i didnt get moving till about 8am. The futon people came to try to pack the bed twice but i was too reluctant to get off the wam bed considering the room outside was cold as i didnt leave the heater on the nite before. I had to tell them to come back later. considering that i was that sleepy, my instructions in japanese actually came out instinctively. That has to be the most complete and perfect jap sentence i have ever constructed in this trip as i didnt and wasnt trying to think so hard.
The breakfast sucks big time so i 'm not gonna talk about it. I went down to the recept to find out the time for the bus to kinugawa onsen station to change to tobu nikko, only to find out that i had 10mins before the bus arrives! oh my god! panic! I had to run all the way up to the room like a mad cow and grab my stuff and run all the way down to try to catch the bus.
Luckily caught the morn 9.20am bus and left for the station without a hitch. Reached Tobu Nikko and bad news, it was raining. What is worse was i didnt know where the bus stop was even though i bought the world heritage pass and free bus and all. So i had to ask the very nice guy at the ticket counter and asked for assistance. The bus stop was right outside ahead and so i bought the umbrella, armed with no map and hopped on. Again, smartly, i had gone to the tourist info counter on monday when i was in asakusa and asked for instructions and so i had the bus stop instructions and number and time schedule on hand. All i had to do was wait and show it to the bus driver! See the smug look on my face when i alighted the bus at the first stop of my sightseeing!
Rain made everything wet and i was cold. Didnt help when i stupidly left my ski outer jacket in the hotel and i didnt have my thermals on. Only my wild rose polartec jacket, t-shirt and a fleece jacket. Thank god for my scarf and i rem my gloves. My hands would have fallen off and gone numb if not for the gloves!
The bus driver got me off the right stop and i found the coupon exchange booth without a glitch. Thank god. She doesnt speak english of coz and couldnt tell me more. I asked for where the return bus was and she point to somewhere on the map. So i take it i would find my way. Everything is very orderly, organised and well planned here so getting lost is never really a big concern. Plus i could manage to say i want to go to a particular desination, so any taxi driver would be happy to help:)
When i reach the temples, I was mightily impressed. No wonder its a world heritage site!! The buildings were goergeous. Now this is what i had hoped to see. Comparing to the tokyo temples, this is like heaven! The architecture was beautiful and very well preserved, and most of all, nothing here is reconstructed like in tokyo (due to WWII).
[ side note: when i was at Meji Shrine in day 1, the intro board said the shrine or this certain part was reconstrcuted due to fire. But what they missed out on saying was fire due to WWII which i read from Lonely planet. I guess its a taboo not to mention anything about the war in Japan.]
Anycase, i love toshogu shrine the most. The climb to the tomb passing thru Sleeping cat was a long ardous climb uphill. (Consolidated Nikko Pictures) Ain't the most flattering pix. looked so fat in two layers of pants and all! but at least am warm and snug. Dunno why Japan women rather freeze and bare their legs... cannot fathom the logic.
Oh, it snowed in Nikko! It made everything looked even prettier and white and picture perfect! I would have hated the rain coz it would be cold and wet but snow, snow is good. Its easier to walk too coz its non slippery!
What spoils it a little is the tourists from Hong Kong and taiwan, especially Hong Kong. They are loud, they do not read signs, they do not take off their shoes where its required and wet and dirty the floor for others who try to take off shoes to enter some parts of the shrines. Its irritating really. I mean, why canx they respect the place they visit and its a shrine for goodness sake. So i had to bear the consequences of getting my socks wet when i took off my shoes and it was freezing cold mind u. The chill went straight up my feet!
I enter this shrine that has a huge drawing of drawing on the ceiling. It was small place. No pictures allowed. Didnt understand what the priest was trying to tell me until he clap this wooden thing. OH! The area where the dragon was had very nice echo but the rest of teh temple didnt. So i see! For that, i got my feet cold and wet. A little let down. Then got out and the bunch of HK people were again stomping all over. Sigh. Until the priest come out and told them off and to take off shoes which they refuse and so they went off, not before leaving the whole board area for walking wet. "Thanks" lot U "brillant" people.
Generally the whole place is really architecturely beautiful, oriental, orginal, detailed and colourful! I had a good thing admiring the structures and the cravings. Although Angkor wat had the same amount of elaboration, it wasnt coloured. So you can imagine how vibrant the scenery was amid the white snow.
What was really funny was when at the last shrine, Futarasan, there was this "sacred" pond. And in it was a very visible sign that says "Do not throw coins into sacred pond". Guess what. No body seems to care and the whole spring pond was full of coins everywhere. It was pretty funny to me and so i took a pix of the entrance and the sign to rem by. I should have written a Note in CHINESE since I doubt the taiwanese and HK senior folks knows Jap and English resulting in the coin litter. I thot to myself, would i be doing them a service if i pick up all the coins and go? I bet there is a $100 bucks there! haaa aaa
Anycase, manage to finish sightseeing by 1pm and head off to kinugawa onsen. had lunch at this small quaint Obasan soba shop. Its family owned so its shop cum home. very intersting. but cheap and good.
came back to tokyo and finger was still hurting. darn. hope i didnt break anything. rushed off to shunju restaurant (near roppongi) for dinner with lilian and it was a pretty nice place. She is 6 weeks away from labor and so we went somewhere closeby. Plus she is just staying next to hyatt and made it easy to meet. Food was good esp the beef cheek! The stewed pork with fats was just as good man! But i wasnt too impressed with the squid dish. Their apple juice from their farm was extremely sweet and couldnt resist having 2! The price came up to about 18 000yen and it was cheaper than ninja tv dinner. Satisfied and good.
I love to upload some more pixs but not tonite. Too tired and have to be up early for My fuji tomorrow. After Nikko, the weather in tokyo tonite was nothing. Not bothered by the wind tonite. Went to Supermarket first though and got some strawberries. they are soooooosweet here! Dunno why. Went to this bookstore cum cafe with cd and dvd for rental... such a cool and hip place. I love it. Why canx singapore has such cool chill out place and its 11pm and everything is still in operation. sigh.
okie really gotto sleep or am in trouble tmw.
Mt Fuji yeah yeah yeah (pray can see something! no rain please!!!)
*crossing fingers and toes*
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