Friday, October 31, 2003

Left early this morning for Nikko which is where the Tokugawa Shogun is buried. The temple a stunning array of decadent carvings. Very beautiful - and a UNESCO World Heritage Sight. We took the Spacia up - Spacia doesn't translate to extra space. It just has seats that recline. And costs twice as much. Oh, it is also an express train - it gets there 10 minutes faster than the regular one. I can now say I've been on it. I don' t think I'll take it again - not worth the extra dough. Although there were foldout trays for each arm which made eating our bentos (Japanese lunch boxes) easier.

We choose the perfect time to go - the leaves are in full colour and are absolutely gorgeous! Nikko is actually a collection of several temples and a Japanese garden. The garden was wonderful. I've only ever been in spring/summer. In the fall, the Japanese maples are vibrant red and the moss is lush and dark green... it is a bit patchy earlier in the year. I got some GREAT pica - so make sure you check out my photoblog. I'll be posting the garden pics over the next week.

We walked around Nikko all day - the weather was great. It wasn't too busy either which was another bonus. We didn't go to see all of the things. Just the garden, Sanbustudo (the temple with three large Buddhas inside) and Toshogu which is the main shrine. Toshogu is the highlight though. After we traipsed thru and took all our pics and bought our souvenirs, we caught a taxi to Kinugawa Onsen... and just missed the bus that would go to our hotel. So we had to get another taxi!

Actually the taxi ride was great. It worked out to be about the same price as the bus (considering there were four of us) and the drive was stunning! I now know why it takes two hours to travel between Nikko and Yunishigawa onsen when they are only like 20 km apart... you have to go up and around mountains! Lots of them. And all of them were covered in colourful trees. The taxi driver even stopped one point by a large river that made for great pictures - he stopped so we could take pics.

We eventually got to the hotel and checked in. We waited in the lobby until they took us up to our rooms. While we waited they served amazake and dango. Amazake is sweet sake. I really liked it. It tasted a bit yeasty, so no one else liked it. Having tasted overpowering drain cleaner like sake in the past, this stuff was wonderful. It didn't have that really harsh taste. The dango were just like any other dango you get. Dango are rice dough balls with a soy-based sauce on them. They aren't that exciting.

A man named Hachi came over and introduced himself - he spoke English and was great at explaining everything to us. This was an unexpected surprise - it was really nice because it took the pressure off Hiroshi and it helped a lot at dinner time! We went up to our rooms and were shocked. They were huge! We had requested a certain style of room, but none were available, so we were given VIP rooms. In addition to a very large tatami room with the adjoining sitting area (standard to Japanese inns) there was another large tatami room, a small kitchen area (cupboard with dishes and sink) and a bathroom with two toilets! And we had two rooms like this! We all could have stayed in one. Mom and Donnie had the nicer room - their scrolls in the alcoves were prettier and their seating area was much larger - it had a couch and two upholstered chairs. Ours just had wide chair things. Hiroshi and I had the better view though.

We all got into our yukata and prepared to go down to dinner. One of the staff helped mom and Donnie put them on correctly. I couldn't get one to fit me. My hips are too big. I was so embarrassed. I had a huge cry and Hiroshi was really sweet about it. He is usually less than helpful when I am upset and tends to be very unsympathetic. He gave me a cuddle which was what I needed and called down to see about other options. Eventually they found the old style they used - it was pants with a yukata type top. I put the regular yukata over top of that. Basically when I walked the yukata opened a bit too revealingly, so the pants worked perfectly. The top also showed way too much cleavage (think popping boob) so the other top fixed that too.

The dinner was absolutely incredible. Hachi joined us to explain what each of the dishes were - which was a godsend. It was all local mountain food, so Hiroshi wasn't sure about a lot of it. The meal started with a wild mountain grape wine aperitif. This was really good! Wish we could have ordered a whole bottle of it ;) Then we had, in no particular order:
- chestnut tofu with a slice of okra
- royal jelly
- skewer with matsutake mushroom, shrimp and mountain potato
- fresh trout sashimi (raw trout) -- this was incredible
- mushroom and tofu soup
- mountain potato soup
- chawanmushi which is savory pudding
- deer sashimi -- no one wanted to eat this. It was quite good though. Mom and Donnie cooked theirs though.
- teppanyaki -- beef cooked on a steel sheet
- Japanese pickles
- rice with matsutake mushrooms
- miso soup
- miso on a paddle in the fire
- chestnut mouse and melon for dessert

Matsutake are very rare mushrooms that grow by pine trees. You can only get them a few places in the world (BC being one of them) and the Japanese go gah-gah over them every fall. The miso is made daily at the hotel and is delicious! It is red miso, which I like. It is the first one that I have ever tasted that was really fruity. Quite good. I bought some as a souvenir.

After that sumptuous dinner we all got ready to go in the onsen (hotspring). The ishiburo (stone bath) was open for women at night so we went there first. Mom and Donnie were having a hoot - maybe the wine helped?? Then we went to the rotemburo (outdoor bath). We had to walk down these slippery stone stairs to it. It was cool though. Then up to bed for a nice sleep.

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