JordanPachal.ca ...Just Me, Myself and I...

Day 3 - July 23...After not tracking down our friends the day before, we woke up today hoping that they would start off the day by contacting us so that we could continue with our first day of joint-planned activities, a trip to the shrine town of Nikko.  I had also made plans to stay with my friends within Nikko at a "Minshuku", a family which has opened their house up as a hotel for travellers.

We prepared ourselves in the morning, but after not hearing from our friends while we got ready, we decided that we should head off to to catch the required trains so that we could try to cross paths once we were in Nikko.  The train route planned for the day was also going to include our first ever Shinkansen (Bullet Train) rides.  After planning our route, we ventured out and once again had a noodle breakfast at the small vending-machine style noodle house near the Shinagawa Train Station.  Our first train which we caught at 10:00am was one of the trips we had already made from Shinagawa to Ueno.  Once in Ueno station we went to the JR (Japan Rail) office to figure out our travel on the Shinkansen to a station named Utsonomiya.  Unfortunately the train we were hoping to catch at 10:46am was already full so we had to wait for the next train at 11:14am.  The Shinkansen ride was quite an experience, however as this particular Shinkansen route travels mainly through the city I do not believe we achieved quite the speeds that the Shinkansen is famous for.  We did however achieve enough speed that Jaime felt motion sickness after the ride, however we have attributed that to the fact that she was reading on the train, and as we travelled through the city, the train was very close to a brick wall for the majority of the ride, which would have been speeding by in her peripheral vision.  After reaching our destination at Utsonomiya we made our way to the train platform to take us to our final destination of Nikko.  While trying to find the platform for the Nikko train, we followed the signs pointing to the Nikko train until we were presented with a sign which stated "Partly Nikko".  We stood there confused for a few seconds until a kind shop-keeper came up behind us, obviously aware of our dilemma, and pointed us towards the proper Nikko platform.  We thanked her and were on our way.  Due to our delay on the Shinkansen however, we were delayed even further as the trains for Nikko leave roughly every hour and the next train wasn't until 12:38pm instead of the original train we had planned to take which was going to leave around 11:48am.

As we had some time to wait for the next train we decided it would be a good time to get some food in our stomachs to tide us over until we reached Nikko.  Michael found his way to the convenience store within the station and picked up some culinary delights, one of which was similar to a chocolate eclair, another of which resembled small Pop-Tarts.  Jaime and I wandered around and found the lady who had pointed us in the direction of the Nikko platform in a small stand selling what appeared to be cake and small bean pastries.  We said they looked good, and Jaime asked her the difference between them.  She pointed to a couple of the pastries and said " No Bean", and pointed to the rest and said "Bean".  Jaime and I selected a variety of the treats which totalled about 800 Yen.  While putting our treats in a bag, the lady threw two extra bean treats in the bag, smiled, and sent us on our way.  We thanked her and headed back down to the platform to wait for the train.  For the record, Bean or No Bean, they were all delicious.  The free ones she put in the bag for us were probably the most delicious, although they also had quite a different texture, almost gummy.

Our last train to Nikko was probably the most spectacular one as although the train itself was a bit older and aged in appearance, the view while travelling to Nikko was spectacular.  We were treated to vast country-side filled with acres and acres of rice fields, forests, Japanese-style country cottages and the odd graveyard filled with amazing lantern-style gravestones (we believe they would be family plots).  Upon arriving in Nikko we set out from the station, found a map, and headed through town towards the main tourist attraction of the temples.  The trek to the shrines wasn't too bad, at about 3 kms (based upon the amount of walking we did the day before), however as the city is set in the mountains, the trek to the shrines was uphill all the way.  If nothing else, we will all come out of this trip with calf-muscles worthy of Greek Gods.

On our trek towards the shrines, we came across a bank which also stated on the door that it was a money-exchange.  Jaime really need to exchange some money as she did not have any exchanged from the Vancouver International Airport, so we went in.  While Jaime was getting her Canadian bills exchanged, I went to the ATM in hopes of being able to remove money that way.  Unfortunately however the ATM did not accept international bank cards, so I was currently out of luck.  I borrowed the Lonely Planet guide from Jaime and read that most post offices contained international ATMs.  Jaime received her exchanged money from the Bank and we were on our way to the shrines again.

Shortly after the bank, we came across a modern bridge which ran parallel to the Shin-Kyo bridge, a reconstruction of the 17th century original.  Its location is famed as the spot where Shodo Shonin was carried across the river on the back of two giant serpents.  Directly after the bridge was a sign directing you into Nikko National Park.  We entered the park and took a path which branched off to the right.  We came across another cleansing station/fountain as described previously and Jaime, Michael and I took turns washing our hands and rinsing our mouths.  There was no incense at this location.  We continued along the path and found a few small shrines.  The path curved back and met up with the original path into the Park.  We continued further into the Park and within a few minutes we were in a large parking lot facing a large shrine.  Admission into the shrines and the adjoining Japanese gardens was 1300 Yen.  We paid our admission fee and were on our way.  The Japanese garden was beautiful and housed an incredible pond which featured the largest Koi fish I have ever seen.  Along the path there was a small section which met the waters edge.  Michael went down to the edge of the water and within seconds almost all of the fish in the pond were mere centimetres away.  Obviously that is where they get fed.

We continued into the "Treasure House" and saw some relics from the Shrines, one of which was a scroll which dated from the 800s...yes, almost 1,200 years ago.  The amazing thing was that it was so clear and well preserved, that minus a few folds in the paper it looked like it was created days before.  Our next stop was into the large temple adjacent to the parking lot, the Rinno-Ji temple.  The temple was undergoing some repairs/restoration so parts of the shrine were blocked off, tarped off, or had temporary structures/stairs in place.  Contained with the shrine were three gold lacquered 8-meter tall Buddha statues.  The central figure is Amida Nyoria, one of the primal deities in the Mahayana Buddhist cannon, flanked on the right by Senju, the 1,000 armed deity of mercy and compassion, and on the left is Bato, the horse-headed deity whose special kingdom is the animal realm.

The next temple we went towards was the Toshu-Go.  Along the path to the main temple area five-storey pagoda which has no foundation, but contains a long suspended pole that maintains equilibrium in the event of an earthquake, some store-houses, a horse-stable containing a sacred horse donated by New Zealand, and a Buddhist library containing 7,000 scrolls and books.  The temple itself was incredibly elaborate, however it too was undergoing maintenance and restoration.  To enter the temple there was a hallway where we had to remove our shoes and continue into the shrine in our bare/socked feet.  Upon snaking through some temporary hallways we entered the temple.  The roof was adorned with 100 tiles of dragons, each one unique.  The shrine room itself was darkened, but you could still spend hours exploring all of the detail adorning the roof and walls if so desired.

As we were leaving that temple, we noticed they were starting to close the gates of the temples, so we hastened our pace to get to the next temple.  It was far less elaborate, and as we were starting to wear down, we decided to call it a day and make our way back down to the train station.  As we had not yet crossed paths with our friends, we were hoping they would be at the train station.  We took a cab to the station as at this point we had no desire to walk back down the 3 kilometre hill, and thankfully this cab ride was only about 1,000 Yen...far more affordable than our original adventure in the taxi system in this country.  Upon reaching the station, our friends were thankfully there waiting for us.  After a few minutes of catching up and deciding our plan, Jaime and Michael got on the train to go back to the hotel in Tokyo, and myself and our friends Tanveer and June started making our way towards the Minshuku for our night in Nikko.

** The remainder of the blog will be split into two sections, one for the adventure of myself and our friends, and a second section for Jaime and Michael... **

-- Jordan, Tanveer and June:

As it was only 5:30pm and the owners of the Minshuku wouldn't be picking us up from the station until 6:00pm we enquired at the train station as to the location of Minshuku to see if it would be worth waiting for pickup or if we should walk.  The attendant showed us on the map where to go and said it would take about 20 minutes.  We decided to walk, as it would be a nice way to explore other parts of Nikko.  We made it to the Minshuku in about 15 minutes and were greeted by, what we believe to be the nicest two people in Japan (at the very least that we had met so far).  After trading our shoes for slippers at the door in traditional Japanese fashion they introduced us to one of the other guests staying there and then showed us to our rooms.  I had a single room and Tanveer and June had a double.  It was very quaint with sliding wooden doors separating the rooms, tatami mat floors which you had to remove even your slippers to enter (bare feet or socks only) and the beds were just futon mattresses on the floor.  Each room however was more than adequately air conditioned which was incredibly welcomed.  After putting our stuff in our rooms, the three of us made our way down to the lobby/lounge area and chatted with the guest we met earlier.  His name was Chen, he was from Taiwan and he was on an amazing tour of biking through Japan.  He had already biked over 2,000kms starting from the Northern Island of Hokkaido over the last month and had another 2 months to go, making his way further south.  At abotu 6:30pm, after hearing Chen's amazing story, Tanveer, June and I were called to our dinner which we had reserved when confirming our rooms.  Upon entering the dining room, we were awestruck at the spread of food before us.  Tempura, scallop and salmon sashimi, kappa maki rolls (cucumber), rice, warm egg custard, miso soup, green beans in an almost sweet tuna mixture, a special bean dish native to Nikko, broiled trout (which I will elaborate on soon), beef slices which were placed on a leaf and cooked over a small burner (quite amazing to watch the beef cook in front of you that way, especially when your friends leaf starts on fire), and fresh cantaloupe.

As noted, the broiled trout was the only questionable item as it was just on a plate...a complete fish, head to tail, just a bit blackened by the oven.  We were all unsure as to how to proceed with that item, so when one of the owners of the Minshuku came in to check on us, I asked him exactly how about we go about eating that item.  he left the room, came back with a new set of chopsticks and proceeded to, within seconds I might add, split the fish open from where it had been gutted prior to cooking, and with a twist of his chopsticks remove the complete spine from the fish, leaving the meat to pick off of the fish skin.  It was quite amazing to watch.  After eating as much as we could, we proceeded back to the lounge area to relax.  Another couple from Holland showed up later in the evening, but we didn't see much more of them minus their arrival.

At 10pm it was lights out for the 23rd of July in Nikko, Japan, ready to start another hot, sweaty, action-packed day in a few hours.

-- Jaime and Michael:

Will be edited in later

- Jordan