Nikko, day 1
teamEggers, meet teamNikko.
These 2.5 hour train rides out of Tokyo and into the mountains are becoming Old Hat. I positive that jon and I take more weekend trips than anyone else I know, and definitely more trips into the Japanese Alps than any of our Japanese friends! I would kill for a train system like this going through the Willamette Valley, I tell you what.
Our first look, outside of the station:
I was a poorly behaved traveller and didn’t pack any snacks for my train ride. When we got off, we were famished and we stopped at the first ramen restaurant we found. Thanks to Will’s great literacy skills, he can recognize the word!
Honestly, I had high hopes. Too high. Too easy to be let down, I suppose. I love wontons in my soup. I love egg in my soup. So why was my garlic-soy sauce ramen so disappointing? Well, check out the layer of garlic chunks and fat floating on top. Meh.
But onward and upward, shall we? We’ve got temples to see! Hotels to check into! This may be vacation, but jon’s a wicked slave driver when it comes to getting places on time. Go, go go!
First stop in Tour de Nikko was the famous bridge. It’s supposed to be one of the most unique bridges in all of Japan. There’s lore associated with it, a tour, you have to pay to walk on it, etc. Needless to say, I was expecting more than this:
I mean, it’s pretty. Don’t get me wrong but….
…And we’re on with our adventure. What is that adventure, you ask? Glad you did. It’s the World Heritage Tour! Part of me loves it when things are easy. It makes it more vacationy. Adventure is for the rest of your life?
Luckily (for the length of this post) things seemed to close up very early ’round these parts, and we were only able to take in one temple today.
It was a compound though! This place has mucho historical cred – built in 1602 (even though the history of the temple goes back to the year 766!) and somehow managed to avoid the laws saying that there needs to be separation between temples and shrines (buddhists and shinto). Because this was so uncommon, it’s especially neat to see imagery from the two co-mingled.
Now would be a good time to show you an example of that, but I don’t have any pictures handy. What I do have is this lovely one of jon and I. Look moms, here we are!
I leave you with a teaser. Because there’s much more dragon in our adventure, yet to come.
