Escape from Tokyo, Part One

What's that saying? The man is the head of the family, but the woman is the neck and can turn the head which ever way she wants?  While this neck pointed that head towards Nikko, a mountain town about two hours north of Tokyo.  He reluctantly gave in, but we finally got on the train on Saturday afternoon.  We got on the train in Asakusa, which is on the northeast side of Tokyo.  Below are two pictures on the way out, going over the river and on the left, you can barely see the Asahi Beer Hall, which has a golden "flame" on top of it, which is supposed to signify the foam on the top of a beer (something they absolutely love here).  The locals lovingly refer to it as the golden turd. 

 Two hours later, here was our first sight of a mountain!!! Mike says: We have this in Southeastern Minnesota.  Party pooper.

 We got off the train in Nikko, and after checking into a semi-sketchy hotel, we headed up the hill towards the temples. It was at least 15 degrees cooler (maybe even more) than Tokyo.  What a relief!!

 We passed this restaurant, which had this sign in the window.  It was also mentioned in my guide book, so of course we ate there on the way back.  More to come on that!

 Then we got to the famous bridge, called shin-kyo, where legend has it that Shodo Shonin was carried across the river on the backs of two giant serpents.

 It's us!  Note me, holding my book?  Also, I bartered with a Japanese guy who was trying to take pictures of himself to take this picture, in order for us to take his.  Score one for Katie.

 The water was so blue, and so clear.  It was absolutely beautiful!

 Then we headed up some ancient looking stone steps, and found this temple...sort of lack-luster, but all the other ones were closed.

 It had a three story pagoda though!

You can see how humid and hazy it was....

 Here's a statue of the guy, and the two serpents below:

 A little waterfall:

The bridge from a new angle...you had to pay 300 yen to cross it, which seemed silly, so I just snuck some pictures:

 Then, ROTARY SHOUT OUT!!!! I was so excited to see this sign, that I literally squealed, and sprinted up the steps towards it.  In doing so, I caught the attention of several tourists, who followed me....time to learn about Rotary, I guess!

 Then we got to the restaurant we had passed, which was covered inside with notes from other tourists. It was so cool, and SO DELICIOUS.  The best food I've had yet in Japan.

 And what good meal is complete without beer?

 Mike's (rather weathered) business card, on the wall!

 Christopher Plappert, US Naval Aviator, posted this...it says "Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but here's my number....call me maybe?" I love that song!

We found out that the whole town closed down at 7....hmmm sounds like Lindstrom, where I grew up!  Anyways, we found a convenience store that sold beer and we had a few while sitting in the town square.  It was peaceful, beautiful and super refreshing. Then we headed to bed early so we could check out the rest of the temples the next day.

We woke up to an entirely different town.  The streets were flooded with people, fresh off the trains from Tokyo.  The lines for bus tickets and the busses themselves were crazy long.  We waited forever and finally got onto a bus.  The we realized that we would have gotten there quicker if we had walked. The traffic going up the mountain was horrible!  A 25 minute walk translated into a 45 minute bus ride. Hilarious!  We finally got off here: which was the courtyard inbetween three major temples or shrines.  After buying a pass for 1000 yen which got us into the five major temples (a huge bargain, since some were 1300 alone!), we headed into Taiyuin byo, which was awesome.

 The trees were huge!

Do you see those spiderwebs across the creek?!?! Crazy.

 These guys were greeting us.  Hand up to greet those with pure hearts, hand down to scare off those without.

 Another place to cleanse your hands and mouth before entering...although...

 The water came straight out of the mountain! Amazing, right?  It was so clear, and so cold! I washed my hands twice.

 More guys greeting us:

Michael, bringing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Japan's shrines:

 The only pictures I could get of inside of the hall are above, pictures aren't allowed once you enter.  However, there were 140 dragons painted on the ceiling which carry prayers to the heavens.  Below is outside the main hall:

 Then we went onto the next shrine, which was a dud...well.  I shouldn't say that, but there was a service going on, so we couldn't get in.  But here's some sake barrels, for your viewing pleasure.

 We moved on...and look at how huge those trees are!!! It was so cool.

 Then we got to Tosho gu, which was huge.  Here's a five-storied pagoda outside:

 Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil? Turns out Pottery Barn didn't invent this:

 On the left, monkeys being young and carefree, on the right, monkeys being old and cautious:

 Some carvings of elephants by an artist who had famously never seen them:

 Huge trees!

Then here was our last shrine...it's under construction, so that's actually a huge building that is built around it, with a picture of the shrine.  You could still get in, and it was pretty cool.  Couldn't take pictures though...sorry!

 Here's a bell tower outside of the shrine:

One last mountain view:

After this, we ate again at that restaurant, because it wasn't busy and it was fantastic, and then we got on the train and headed back to Tokyo!  Oh yeah. we visited the tourist information center, and the guy told us to tell all of our friends that Nikko is nice! So there you have it, friends!