Really, why? Nikko...

I'm such a dork/blogger, but here I am once again, writing my trails/journeys down again for my benefit, and possibly yours :). And I'm lazy too, haven't really written much for a while. The whole posting up pictures is so tedious I subconsciously avoid it.

Anyway, I went to Nikko on Thursday; my first 'out of Greater Tokyo' trip. Was quite exciting, and organised to include myself (no thanks to me, THANKS EWLEE!) So I got to trek around with Ewlee, her friend Wei (from highschool) and Minako (longtime penpal). It was pretty cool...wait...let me tell you the good stuff first. The hotel we stayed in was really nice, very Japanese and stuff. The kaiseki ryori (traditional Japanese) dinner was insanely fancy, like fine dining Japanese. I wasn't used to a lot of the food, including Nikko's famous yuba (tofu). I basically tried everything, but home was where the cooked food was. Raw food is just not really my thing.

I tried the hotel's onsen (hot spring/spa). The onsen had 3 different pools with different temperatures. I'm not sure which one was 38 degrees, but that was one of the two outside, hotter ones. Anyway, I couldn't handle it for too long so I had to go and douse myself with warm/cold water. Then jump back in! Well that's what they do, 4-5 minutes in, then out again, then in again. Supposed to be good for your health or something. The first time I stepped out of the bath, I got so dizzy I almost lost my footing. It's seriously hot, and quite nice...but not something I'd readily go for again and again.

Friday was the sightseeing day. We went to see the Kegon falls, and the 4 main temples/shrines of which I can only remember 3, hehehehe. But they were not really zen-like, more ornamental and decorative like the Chinese temples and shrines.

All of this was literally overcast by serious low pressure system rain (chubby rain). There's a typhoon not far south of Japan, but that wasn't made Thursday and Friday extremely wet days. Basically, on Friday, my feet were wet from 10am-10pm. The worst part of it is that today (Saturday), it was one of the nicest days; blue skies, patchy clouds, clear sky (this is all vocab in Lesson G40 - Talking about the Weather!). Anyway, I spruced up some of the photos so it doesn't look like such a bad day. In the tunnel, Minako is on the left, Wei on the right. :)