My ten millionth trip to Nikko

Today I took Erik up to Nikko, which is a UNESCO site about 125 km north of Tokyo. The Shogun's tomb is here, as is his grandson's. I've been to Nikko several times myself and have taken anyone who has ever visited me there. I don't mind too much because the place is stock full of minus ions or something [Side note: minus ions (pronounced minus eons in Japan) are the latest health craze here] and is a nice relaxing, green area.

We left at standard Nikko departure time - which is one hour later than planned. (I don't know why that always happens). When we got to Asakusa, which is where the train departs from, we wandered around Asakusa kannon and down the shopping street. It was a holiday today, so there were lots of people about. Finally we got on the train with our sushi bento (lunch boxes) and had a relaxing two hour trip up into "the natures" as the Japanese say.

The first order of business when we got to the station was to book a hotel. The woman at the help desk was very friendly. She gave me a brochure for a place that was more than we wanted to spend. I asked her for a cheaper place and she picked up the phone and dialed a pension - they said they would take us at our named price because I spoke Japanese. Whehoo! Perks! Sometimes they won't rent a room to you if you don't speak Japanese. Not to say there are no rooms available - you just have to pay for the more expensive ones unless you have some language skills. The help desk woman was nice. She kept going on and on about how Erik had a kind face and big eyes. This conversation went on for like five minutes, which I think embarrassed Erik.

Nikko was overcast and cool. It was nice! The leaves weren't out yet (as in hadn't changed colour) unfortunately. Despite being overcast, there were lots of people as always touring the shrine. Not as many as usual perhaps, but still enough to walk in front of any picture you tried to take. A couple from Mexico were on the bus with us up to the shrine area and didn't speak any Japanese so I asked them to join us... having been to Nikko so many times, I know at least a little about every building.

We saw all four major shrines / temples, plus the Japanese garden. Around 5 it started to rain. We waited with the Mexican couple under a building's eaves trying to stay dry. We didn't have any umbrellas, and they had forgotten theirs on the bus. Finally we made the mad dash to the bus and headed down to dinner. We just went to the family restaurant because they have drink bar... which means refillable coffee. Of course, the problem with Nikko, which I realized when I asked the staff about the bus schedule, is that everything closes early. So the last bus left five minutes after we arrived at the restaurant. So we ended up having to take a cab to our hotel.

The hotel was pretty basic. It was clean, but old. The big bonus though was it had bath facilities. I think it was just an ofuro (bath) rather than an onsen (bath that has water with high mineral content). They did have a rotemburo (outdoor bath) though, so I sent Erik into that one, and I went to the indoor one. Ahhhh, heaven! Having a hot bath in Japan is always wonderful. I never have one at home because I have a bathtub the size of a toybox. It is nice and deep but very short and narrow. So getting out of the thing is sometimes and adventure. Not to mention the fact that my building has essentially no hot water pressure, so it takes like 30 minutes to fill the tub halfway.

After we were all relaxed from our bath, we hung out and watched a show on big things. The biggest tuna, biggest insects, tallest person, fattest young people. They had a six year old and a four year old (weighing, I kid you not, over 70 kg each (155 lbs)) wrestle each other in the studio. I thought that was kind of sad. Poor things, but that is Japanese tv for you.