A Japanese Day - Nikko

So, John had a holiday on Monday (woohoo) so with the three day weekend ahead of us we decide to try our hands at a day trip from Tokyo to Nikko. John is the better planner of the two of us, so he mapped out how we get to the train station and the timing etc. We wake up at the crack of dawn to head out and catch the 7:30am train, which may or may not be sold out. There is no purchasing the tickets on-line, so in person is our only option. We get there and it is in fact sold out, but the ticket attendant was so helpful and told us that there was another train leaving from a different line at 7:50am that might work and he gives us very detailed directions of how to get there. It required more subway riding and to cut to the chase we get to the metro where we are supposed to change lines and can't figure out how to get to the other line.....and time runs out. This is not the best way to start a very long day...frustrated, but we pulled it together I gave John a pep talk similar to the "Big Girl" one that worked so well for me earlier. We can do this we just have to be patient with ourselves, etc. And we pick ourselves up, backtrack to the original location, and purchase train tickets for the 9:10am departure. The train ride is two hours so we still have plenty of time to see the town.

Nikko is a very cool place about with a very large area with numerous shrines and temples....here is one of my favorite pictures from our first big adventure to peak your interest

We saw so many amazingly gorgeous things in Nikko. We also got lost, sweat alot, backtracked more from shrine to temple to shrine and lived by the map, which at the end of the day looked quite sad from so much use. We also realized that it's hard to know exactly what you are seeing when you can't read the informational signs, but that's okay we got to give everything our own story. After what was a very full day we got to ride the Shinkensan on one of the legs home. This was one of John's favorite parts. The Shinkensan is the bullet train, which goes 120 mph...it was pretty amazing. Then we went to a bar and grill where I got very tasty nachoes and watched Formula One racing with the Europeans. It was a banner Japanese day.

I'm adding in the pictures from our trip, which have captions of where we were (when I knew) for you to enjoy. Photos of the actual shrines were not allowed, so you won't see those. To give you a little info though, you take your shoes off to go inside the shrines and some temples, so it was just craziness with zillions of people storing their shoes and then others retrieving shoes all at the same time while trying to avoid going out into the rain. It was a very different experience.

A little quick aside about Japanese women....first of all let me just say that the vast majority of Japanese women that I have observed are dressed to the hilt at all times and look perfect even after a full day. That being said, in Nikko at the shrines was no exception. Keep in mind that the paths are gravel for the most part and the stairs to get up to everything are incredibly steep, but that does not stop the Japanese woman from looking completely amazing......for instance:

These were some typical shoes worn at Nikko by a Japanese woman. In fact these might be a little lower than most seen. As you can see from my slideshow pictures...I opted for sturdy tennis shoes and my feet still hurt after a full day of walking. It is just really amazing to me and you would have no idea that they are at all uncomfortable in their heels. My friends that is dedication to fashion!


I hope this post finds you all doing well. My family luckily came through hurricane Ike in tact and now they just have to wait for the power to be restored at some potentially distant time in the future.

Until next time....Jenn