Kate’s Quests

After a fitful nights sleep, DJ and I got up at 5:30am and got ready for the day. We left the house at around 7am and made our way to the train station. We had to get some cash at the ATM before we left though, and much to our surprise, the ATM didn’t open until 7:45am. Weird Japanese. So, we stumbled over to Starbucks and each got a surprisingly weak coffee. After we got our money we stood on the most crowded train I have ever been on for an hour and a half. We stood the entire way to Asaksa and it was miserable. We could barely breathe. And although I’d seen it before, after leaving the train to walk down to another station I snapped a picture of the Asahi beer foam. It’s supposedly the head of a beer (since it’s the beer company you’re looking at), but to me and to anyone I’ve ever talked too…it looks like a giant sperm.

We then caught the train to Nikko. That was another hour and a half ride and after arriving we got lunch at this steak house. It was actually really good! I had a pumpkin soup that was nice. I think I’m going to try to make that at home. I started snapping pictures outside of the restaurant and the server came running outside and offered to take a picture of us. How could I refuse? It was hands down the best service we’ve had since getting to Japan. Our water glasses were always being filled and usually you have to beg to get more water!

We then walked to the National Forest and up many many stairs. There was a Japanese group of children on what looked like a school trip and two girls about 10 years old followed us up the hill and said, “Hello!” We said hello back and they busted up into giggles and said hello to us about three more times. We could tell they were telling their friends about their encounter with the Americans that TALKED TO THEM.

After we passed by the Shinkyo bridge, we bought a pass to the shrines and temples of Nikko. It was fun walking around since there are water fountains everywhere that say something like, “Enjoy the amazing taste of fresh Nikko water!” The stuff is so pure and clean you can drink it straight from the river. It looks amazingly clean, but we had no water bottle to fill and didn’t think about buying one just to taste water. We got a great deal on a combination pass and got to see the Toshogu shrine, Futurasan shrine and the Rinnoji temple (among many others). We had to stop and take our shoes off at many of the shrines to look around. Believe me, that was kinda cool at first, but after three shrines we were all, “we have to take our shoes off again?!” The places were very beautiful, it was amazing that the details on the shrines could be so intricate. There were so many shrines in temples in such a small space. I thought that that was pretty surprising.

I did like getting to see the origin of the hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil monkeys. You always hear about it and hear references to it, but to actually see where they began was pretty cool. The sun had been out in Tokyo, but when we got to Nikko, which is near mountains, it had spent the afternoon trying to peek out and while we were at the shrine it was finally successful. The light coming through the trees was really beautiful and gave the area a very magical atmosphere. There were tons of people there. The coming of October means tourists are showing up in droves since the heat of the summer is finally dissipated and the leaves are starting to turn color. The fall and the spring are definitely the most popular times to visit Japan.

On our way out, we stopped and bought some cake and strawberry wine. Apparently the region is known for their strawberries. The wine was ok and the cake probably tasted amazing to a Japanese person, but for us…not so much. We also stopped at a small art gallery and looked around. DJ and I both agreed on two pieces and totally made this guy’s day. He was very excited about getting a sale at the close of the business day and bustled around finding the perfect thing to wrap the artwork in. He threw in two other things in for free as well (a small drawing of three hedgehogs and the candy dish). Once he found out that we actually lived in Japan, he ran over and picked up the little dish and said, “Candy!” He spoke no English, other than the word candy, but was really cute. The pictures don’t do any of the artwork justice, but you get the idea. The scroll is amazing and totally Japanese. The painting, which is actually a framed poster is very different, but both DJ and I loved it.