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What a weekend!! Just on a whim, I decided to go to Nikko about two weeks ago and checked with Krysta if she would like to go. One of her friends in Takasaki had just been and spoke very highly of it so she was in. She asked her Aussie friend in Takasaki, Jody from Melbourne if she would like to come and then Jody asked her friend who also lives in Tsuchiura, Liz if she wanted to join us. So my little outing that I was going to do by myself turned into a huge weekend with 3 awesome girls! It was nice to meet another foreigner in Tsuchiura and I hope that we stay in contact cause she's a great girl. So two Aussies, one Canadian and one American converged on Nikko very early in the morning on a Sunday! I left home at 5:30am to get the Nikko at a decent hour with lots of sightseeing ahead! I missed one of my connections and ended up taking 4 hours to arrive, instead of 3! MAN! Anyway, Nikko is known in Japan as the northern version of Kyoto. It is in the Japan Alps, and in October is very popular with the autumn leaf colours and the waterfalls. Suffice to say, when I arrived at the station and met with Krysta and Jody, we were amazed with the view that hit us straight out of the station! We turned right and were bombarded with gorgeous mountains, pine trees and waterfalls in town, with a river flowing through town and little chalet buildings, including the station. To fit in with the natural environment, all the buildings in Nikko are built of wood and either in Japanese or Swiss Chalet style. It makes the town look absolutely gorgeous! We were in Love!! I was supposed to travel up with Liz from Tsuchiura but she took a different train then me and left her bag on the train so had to go all the way into Tokyo and lost property to retrieve it so she was a couple of hours late. But we commenced our trip. Photos were taken from the minute we exited the station and were breathless - This is the Japan I had been looking for a while! We walked towards the hostel - Nikko Park Lodge in the mountains and trees above the town - the directions said it was a 15-20 minute walk from the station but little did we realise it was all uphill! About ¾ along, we were stopped by a van of employees for the hostel who offered us a lift - typical! And then we didn't have to walk the last bit on our own. Checked into the hostel and then went out to explore. The walk from the hostel to the Temple and Shrine area was through the country and we got our first glimpse of the leaves and water everywhere - we even saw a brewery and some kimono clad women singing opera at a village hall - it was cute! Arriving at the Rennoji Temple after battling the crowds - Autumn is Nikko's busiest season - there mustve been 500,000 people in the temple area on that day! We bought our ticket and headed to have lunch at the one woman restaurant to wait for Liz to arrive, she was in Nikko by that stage and was trying to find her way to the Shrine area. After lunch, we decided to battle the crowds and hit the temples and shrines - it is one huge complex with multiple buildings and heaps of people - check out the photos on flickr to prove! We wandered around for 2 hours - took heaps of photos and if it wasn't for my lonely planet guidebook - would have been hard to navigate and to understand the meaning behind the buildings - Nikko is also home to the three monkeys of Shinto - See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil, and we saw the original carvings of these and I had to buy the phone lanyard - it is growing by the day! The crowds started to get to us though - and we needed some time away from the chaos. Our tickets including entrance to a Japanese Garden which was just what we needed - some peace and quiet and awesome autumn colours! It was my favourite part of Nikko so far. The Temples and Shrines were good - and the main reason that people go to Nikko, but it will need to be a while before I see any more… lol. Next stop was the famous red bridge! There are many stories and tales that come from this bridge but the one I like the best is that in the past, lovers who families wouldn't allow them to marry, would come to the bridge, jump and commit suicide. We stood there for a while trying to understand how this would work, cause it was fairly deep water underneath, but then we saw the rocks in the crystal clear blue water and it all started to come together. There was a family at the Shrine near the bridge and wanting to get gorgeous photos of the scenery of the bridge, flowing water, pine trees and wooden buildings anywhere - I included the family with all female members dressed in kimono for a festival and blessing - it was so cute! We then started heading down the main road towards the station and trying to find a place to eat for dinner - there wasn't anything open. We decided to go to a café to get a hot chocolate until the okinimiyaki restaurant would open - where you cook your own - how cool and I'd never done it before, but had eaten heaps of them! And when we walked into the café - unbelievable - the owner had taken so many different types of antiques and dolls from the past 50 years and put them together - including some very scary looking chucky dolls - very kitsch! We didn't stop staring and laughing at the gaudy interior decorating until we left and went to the restaurant - yummy! After a delicious dinner, walked back to the hostel and played cards for a few hours, chatting to the fellow guests and heading to bed ready for the big day coming up tomorrow.
Early rise again today to go and explore the Chuzenji area. We caught the bus from the train station to one stop before Lake Chuzenji and to get there, we went up a bloody windy road, on a sharp angle and the road is that steep that its one way going up and a separate road for going down - with the average speed of 10kms/hr. We got off the bus and the peak of the highest mountain in the area and caught a cable car to the peak of the other mountain with the aim of hiking halfway down the mountain. I'm okay with hiking but not brilliant with heights, and when I saw the rickety path uphill instead of down and I wasn't wearing the best shoes to hike, so Liz and I headed back on thecable car and agreed to meet Jody and Krysta at the town in a couple of hours. Then came the waiting for the bus to get to the town! It seemed like half of Japan had descended on Chuzenji that day - we could see the traffic backed up all the way down the mountain as we were up the top so we admired the awesome fall foliage and views while waiting. Caught the bus finally that took us to the town - ended up arriving after Krysta and Jody - the hike was supposed to take 3 hours and they only took 1hour - don't know how! One of life's little mysteries. After meeting up with them, we headed for lunch at a little cafe - which served the most delicious pizza I have had since my time in Italy and we wandered around and looked at the shops after lunch. The reason we went to Lake Chuzenji is to see the Kegon Waterfalls and the Lake Chuzenji. We headed over to the waterfall and saw the view from the top viewing platform, then Krysta, Jody and I headed down to the bottom of the waterfall - 100m below to see the splendour from below - It was amazing and with the fall colours of red, orange and gold - absolutely amazing!!! Many photos later and exhausted from keeping my mouth open in awe, we went back up to the top and decided to hike partway to the lake and the original plan of walking around the lake went out the window when we saw how big the lake was and that the weather (clouds and cold) were coming in, not something I wanted to be doing in the rain, thats for sure! We pooled our cash and went on a giant swan pedalboat for 30minutes, which gave us enough time to pedal up to the shrine, dip our feet in the cold water, see the awesome views from a different perspective and relax, before heading back to shore and continuing the exploring...
Continuing along the lake, we spotted the most magnificent red leaves and great views of the sunset over the lake and we headed to the shrine, in search of an onsen for the girls - Something about an onsen just freaks me out - Im very self consious and even though I didnt do the onsen with the girls today, I have promised that I will bare all in Hokkaido - something picturesque about snow around the edge of a steaming hot pool of water - the fact youre naked with a whole heap of elderly women in there for medical reasons has nothing to do with it - I dont want to bare all! lol..
So while the girls were in the onsen, I went to a little cafe, devoured some great cheesecake and enjoyed the warmth cause the weather had really turned.. The bus back to Nikko finally came after a 2 hour delay --- thanks to the massive traffic jam from Nikko to the top of the Lake Chuzenji and the poor weather setting in, then the 1 hour bus ride back down the scary mountain was afterwards.. By the time we arrived, got our stuff out of the lockers and grabbed some dinner, the 3 and a half hour journey home started and I arrived back home at 11pm, just in time to do some dishes, washing and headed to bed...
WHAT A WEEKEND!!!
- comments
Halina And I am on the opposite end of the sptecrum. I don't like reading this emotional sort of stuff, it kills me. It's the same reason, won't go to certain movies. Heck, I cry at virtually every Disney movie. When the crawdad died in the Princess and the Frog, I went through three Kleenexes! And then, when he was reunited with his first love . . . well, my nose started running!I HATE raw emotion. I'm sorry, Karin, but I can't read this sort of stuff. I just can't handle it.