Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Same as Nagano trip, meet in Kaihin at 8:30 to get on the bus. This time we only had one bus since a lot less people went on this trip, which by the time I got on it was mostly full. I semi-unknowingly made Joe give me the seat next to him he had been saving for Chris... oh no! But he'd brought his laptop and we watched Enemy of the State for most of the way down. So intense!! I got really into it and it distracted me completely.
At one of the rest stops... was a bear-themed stall.
Around 1 or so we were in the Nikko area and stopped at Toshogu Shrine, one of the Nikko landmarks. This shrine is all famous cause it's the resting place of Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of the three 'unifiers' of Japan... etc etc. And there's some famous things there like the three 'hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil' monkeys and this carving of a sleeping cat. I was mostly happy because it was a (Shinto) shrine, automatically cooler and less boring than a (Buddhist) temple to me (although it was heavily Chinese influenced, so it felt more like a temple anyway), and because the fall foliage made it look extra beautiful.
There were lots of things to explore and look at all over the shrine grounds so we spent a while looking at everything and running around. Audrey and I bought postcards and sat on this bench writing some, I got most of the ones to my AC friends done. That was also where an old lady swooped down on me and began praising and touching my hair, I guess amazed at the color...? Yes indeed, human hair comes in other colors besides dark brown/black! Did you know eyes do too!? wow!!!
Oh, check it out, some real fall foliage. Looks like you have to go to the MOUNTAINS to actually see some!!!
sup torii
These are in fact the very "Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" monkeys that inspired the saying.
Casey and roommate-Aly
Nemuri-neko! (sleeping cat) The teacher for the art class who accompanied us, who had this really shrill annoying voice, WOULD NOT STOP TALKING about this cat. "Did you see the cat!??!"
Lisa and I ambushed Shin-san with my new cat earmuffs. It was pretty amazing. :D
I tried to find a shrine arrow like my ones from Itsukushima (Miyajima) and Tsurugaoka-Hachimangu (Kamakura) but there were NONE. What kind of famous shrine doesn't sell arrows?!?
Then we got back on the bus and drove to the next famous place, the Kegon Falls. Basically a big waterfall. You get there and ride down in this huge elevator to get to a prime vantage point. Of course there are multiple gift shops there as well. It was pretty fun and cool to see.
HAHAHA Audrey dangling her scarf down
After that we drove to our hotel, which was so interesting. It wasn't a traditional ryokan; from the outside it looked like a Western-style hotel. The lobby was this sort of glamour decor, red carpeting. And yet there was a woman who stood at the entrance and bowed to you as you came in. And the rooms we were in were all traditional tatami rooms (though some of them had 2 beds off to the side as well). So interesting.
Once we got to our rooms (mine was the Nagano room + roommate Aly and Meikai-sogo-3-class Trisha), we sat around chatting until dinner. Then after dinner it was ONSEN TIME!! Lisa, Audrey and I went down. This onsen... was... AMAZING. It was like an onsen paradise. The main pool was much more than the tiny tub we'd had at Nagano--it was a real pool, about 1 foot deep and very very wide, so we could actually swim around in it a little (which we did, naturally). It was huuuuge. There was also a small cold-water pool off to the side, which I hadn't seen since the onsen by our ryokan in Asakusa we'd gone to so often in January. Too late we remembered that there was also an OUTDOOR onsen at this place! I went and looked at it, but we had already finished our bath so I decided to go tomorrow.
woohoooo, yukata tiiime!
After that we stayed up talking but then eventually went to bed cause we were tired.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
I woke up around 7 or so because people were moving around, and decided to go down to the onsen, where I knew Lisa already was. I took a short dip in the big indoor pool before going OUTSIDE YEAAHH. There were 3 medium-sized pools out there (all different somehow, but I didn't feel like attempting to decipher the descriptions detailing exactly how) and then at the far end, three small SCENTED POOLS, called the "sleepy cat" pools! Each of the three had a different scent: rose, lemon grass, etc. So cool! Although the scent wasn't that strong. It was still really cool and fun. Again, the only other people we saw in the onsen area besides us were really old women. We saw quite a few gaggles of them roaming the hotel. The only tourists in Japan are old people. FACT.
After that, Lisa and I (still in our yukata robes, scandalous!) went to breakfast, which this time was a big buffet-style affair, which made me incredibly happy because they had tons of things I liked. Corn soup, toast, rolls, scrambled eggs, and those little yogurt-y breakfast drinks they have in Japan that I love so much. Hyung-Hye and Shin-san joined us shortly and we all had a very nice conversation; good times.
Then back up to the room where I packed up my stuff, quickly went to the hotel souvenir shop with Hyung-Hye to get omiyage for my host family and work (all strawberry themed, one of Nikko's little famous things) and then brought everything down and back onto the bus. Once we were all on, we set off for the Ryuokyo Ravine, this really cool ravine area you can hike around in, which we did. When you say 'hike' it makes it sound like a lot of work but it really wasn't, it was just us walking all over this place until we did the whole trail. It was so, so beautiful, and made me think of Colorado. Hardly ever in Japan do I come across places I think my parents would really enjoy going to, but this place made me think of them and wish they could come see it, I know it's the kind of thing they would really, really like. Nikko is a place that they would definitely enjoy going to. Maybe someday!
Obligatory shrine along the way
Joe Kim/Riidaa!
Hahaha Hyung-Hye
Dramatic Ryan!
yeaaah :D
Dramatic Anna!
I'm out on a ledge here, so I had this picture taken to freak out my mom, but you can't really see it, oh well!
Dramatic Anna again! (It was toooo easy hahah)
HAHAHHAAHHA LOOK AT THE TREE FAMILY. DON'T SMOKE IN THE WOODS, BABY TREES CRY!
When we got back to the parking lot/souvenir shop area, we had lunch in one of the places, where they had given us bowls of meat and vegetables and we could cook them on this open grill thing. There was also soba and stuff. It was really good. After that we took advantage of the ice cream places because that's just what you have to do when traveling around in Japan. I got chestnut, and then grape. Mmmmm ice cream.
Lunchtime
Awwww, how cute.
After that we went to this handicrafts place where we did woodcarving!! Another Nikko famous-thing, obviously. I chose the sakura handmirror design, so I painstakingly carved that out, and I don't think it turned out too bad, though not perfect... oh well.
Mirror pre-carving
Almost done
And here it is!
While waiting for everyone to finish, we discovered a HORSE FARM across the street!! So some of us went over and petted the horsies. This white one was really nice and loved us petting it! yay horses!!
Taryn, me, and Matt. And our horse buddy!
The handicrafts center place.
Then, at last, back on the bus to head for home. After we got back to Kaihin, Allie's twin sister Tricia had just arrived so Lisa, Marius, Casey and I went to go meet her outside her hotel, and then we went to that little 'Mexican' place in one of the malls which I like because you go up to the front and order and pay there, which is just so less stressful than getting the bill at the end, especially if they don't divide it up (which most places don't). So we had some dinner there and it was fun.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Thanksgiving!! After a more or less stressful day because we knew we were only going to have 20 people when we reserved for 25 and the woman who runs the restaurant was not happy with us... things turned out all right in the end. We met at Hachiko in Shibuya and all 20 of everyone showed up, which is really pretty amazing. From there we walked about 10 minutes or so over to the Pink Cow, where our Thanksgiving dinner awaited us :)
And it was soooo gooood. Bread, turkey, peas, pasta, brownies, pies, mashed potatoes, gravy... soooo deliciousssss. Everyone was really happy and satisfied with it, which was very good since Aly and I worked hard to organize it. And we apologized to the owner, Traci, who ended up hitting it off really well with Aly later on, so I think she forgave us for our screwup. So yeah... it was a big success and we were happy and full and satisfied. Mmm American Thanksgiving in Japan! It is possible. :D
My (first) plate :)
Priscilla is full and satisfied hahaha
Casey, me, Deborah, Ryan.
mmmmm
Hahaha the guys were so full they had to loosen their belts.
Me and the owner, Traci (she's from California!).
Sunday, November 26, 2006
At around 2 I went down to Omotesando to wait for Sarah (AC graduate Sarah) and Hyung-Hye to get done with a hair appointment they had nearby. I was early so I just wandered around the area. I found the Oriental Bazaar, which is the place that's in all the guidebooks, and sure enough, every single gaijin tourist in Tokyo was in that place. It basically just has a bunch of traditional Japanese things like ceramics, kimono, whatever whatever. Really boring, but for some reason a lot of tourists go crazy for it and buy tons of gifts there.
Walking a little more down Omotesando (which is a street that pretty much connects Aoyama and Harajuku, and leads up to Meiji Jingu Shrine--the name "Omotesando" means "road leading up to a shrine." It's become a really fancy area, and Burberry, Louis Vuitton, and all that have their flagship stores there), I found Kiddy Land. Yay, Kiddy Land! I hadn't been before so I thoroughly explored all 5 floors of toys and random things. I got an adorable planner full of Engrish, some postcards with pretty art on them, and a strawberry wallet that's really cute. That place is so much fun, everyone needs to go.
Finally Hyung-Hye got done with her hair appt, and she found me, and we met up with Milin to walk around some more until Sarah was done. Milin showed us the back alleys of Harajuku where he'd found all these hip-hop clothing stores and such. Sarah finished up and joined us and we went to this REALLY COOL art gallery, Design Festa Gallery, that had been made out of a converted apartment complex building. It was the coolest thing ever. They had completely repainted the place all funkily and turned the individual rooms into places for each artist to exhibit their work, and in the patio outside there was all this cool art stuff. It was amazing.
The patio. Soooo coooollll!
Then we went to the okonomiyaki place right next to it (loosely connected to it), Sakuratei, and got the tabehodai (all you can eat). I don't like okonomiyaki but fortunately they had yakisoba and yakiudon options. It was really nice but that was where I lost the original cat earmuffs (from the earlier pictures). I'd put them down on the windowsill next to our table and then forgot to get them. Usually if you lose something in Japan you get it back immediately cause people turn stuff in there... which makes me think the foreigners at the table behind us stole them. Grrrr. But oh well, I did find new ones and all, eventually.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
After work I went over to Omotesando (again!) to meet up with Casey, Joe Kim/Riidaa, Adam, Deborah, Yuki, and Chandra. Joe wanted to go to Kiddy Land so we met outside of that, and Casey had been there since earlier so he'd already run around excitedly and bought his stuff. We walked over to Shibuya in search of a place to eat, and (after parting with Casey and Joe Kim, who went to go have dinner with Matt K's parents) Adam showed us to the customize-your-own-ramen place. It's really pretty cool. You sit at individual booths, they give you a piece of paper with the options on it (like at Which Wich), you choose, they bring you your ramen, close the screen to give you privacy, and it's pretty much delicious. It's open 24/7, too. The perfect place to go when you're alone and craving ramen, essentially. How cool.
This is what the place was like. There were two sides, with the servers/kitchen in the middle, and Yuki and Adam ended up on the other side, so we could see them across the way before they pulled our screens down.
Across the street I could see the Disney store, so we went over to check it out. The one in Ikspiari isn't anything special really so I wasn't expecting much, but the Shibuya one is SO COOL! The stairway!! From the first floor, you go down a corridor painted to look like you're going through the hole from Alice in Wonderland, and the theming continues as you go up the stairs. On the second floor it becomes princess theming, then on the top (third floor), the ceiling is painted with stars and Tinkerbell is at the top. SO COOOOOLLLLL. Good job, Shibuya Disney store!!
Across the street from that is the Shibuya Apple store, so we went over to look at that. Nanos are so cute! If they had a purple one I'd be almost tempted. Then down the street was Parco, a department store, so we went over there. They had their Christmas decorations out in front so we perused that before going down to the basement and browsing around the bookstores. Next to the Parco is this side street that Yuki knew about and was saying was "like Harajuku," so on our way back to the station we went through there. I was sort of half-heartedly checking the stores there for the cat earmuffs, not really expecting to find them, but in the third store I checked (Daichu), there they were!! yay!!! And all was right in the world again. :)
Us outside the Parco.
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