Nikko Trip
Yesterday morning I get my ass up and packed. We were going on an overnight trip to Nikko. They warned us that it might get a little cold. If only I had known…
Once again, the train ride was quite ridiculous, though because I was on the Yamanote line slightly later, it wasn’t as sardine-packed. I guess 8 o clock is the time everyone’s supposed to be at work. Hope none of my classes start close to that time.
The bus ride to Nikko was pretty uneventful. I decided that sleep would be pretty good, and for the first half of the ride, it worked. And then the girl in front of me started talking about anime.
Not just talking about Anime. I mean, talking about it. Describing every little scene in episode 270 of some show. Like a Japanese wannabe trekkie or something. And then she described the ending of the series, and how the fans were pissed, so they made a movie… I wish I had a gun at that point. Or a working iPod. I had neither.
On the second part of the ride (after a short break), I sat with Francisco from El Salvador, which alleviated the pain of more anime talk from up front.
Nikko was an interesting place. We visited two different shrines, and a temple. Our tour guide explained the difference on the bus. Buddhism and Shintoism. Though talking to Francisco I forgot which one was which.
The shrines were gorgeous, though I though there were too many people around. So I decided that it would be better for me to wake up early in the morning and come up myself. After walking around the shrines and temples, we were taken to our Ryokan, our traditional Japanese hotel for the night.
The ryokan was interesting, and we’d finally sleep on futons. No not foldable college futons. Real futons. And there was an ofuro as well. A hot tub with spring water. This was a geo-thermal zone after all. The tatami mats in the rooms looked really snazzy too. Some of the guys dressed up in yukata, the male kimonos and pranced around the hotel.
Dinner was funky as well. We walked into the banquet hall and there were over 50 individual tables for all of us. And on the table were a bunch of plates. They had raw beef too. Surely we weren’t going to eat raw beef. That was true.
The ladies came around with lighters and lit underneath the plate. The beef was cooked right in front of us. So we could make sure it was up to our standards. That was phenomenal. I enjoyed every bit of it. And then I also threw some of my raw fish on there to cook it up a little bit. My fire ran out soon and I was stranded with some sakana on my plate.
But no fear, the sushi monsters came by and ate it.
Most of the guys went to jump into the hot spring tubs. But I decided that I would chill a little bit and go to bed. I’d be getting up at 5 am the next day. Needed to be ready.
I woke up at around 6 actually. Didn’t feel the need to get up at daybreak. Sleep was precious to me. Even at 6 it was really damn cold. I walked down to this bridge, and then walked back up the hill to the shrines. Definitely a lot more zen with nobody around. Though I did expect there to be some sort of fog in the morning. It was too cold though. After a while, small flakes of something started to fall out of the sky. I thought some of the trees might be losing some flowers or something (it is spring). I was wrong.
The drive up the mountain was pretty cool, except for the few flakes turning into a massive blizzard. We went up 44 hairpin turns. Thought my stomach wouldn’t agree. At the top of the mountain we stopped and went outside. The wind howled as the blizzard continued. The temples looked really nice with the red paint and the snow covering everything. But it was still coming down in droves.
We went on to the first waterfall we were supposed to visit, and the snow kept coming. I slipped down some steps. But it was worth it. The views were wonderful. We went to another waterfall as well, which was about 300 feet high. More than that actually because we had to go down an elevator for over a 100 meters. At that point most everybody was tired. It was cold, VERY WINDY, and grey. Icky for the most part.
We piled back onto the bus and were hit with Tokyo’s reality within 2 hours. Traffic and congestion. And urban sprawl. Oh Tokyo.
On a lesser note, on the way home I walked onto one of the trains and took a spot out in the open by the door. About two stops down, the train had more people on there, but a lot of space was available. The third stop, three people get on the train including a lady, and out of the entire car, she chooses to stand right in front of me, an inch away. Talk about invading personal space on an empty train. Crazy Japanese.
Photos are coming…..
Once again, the train ride was quite ridiculous, though because I was on the Yamanote line slightly later, it wasn’t as sardine-packed. I guess 8 o clock is the time everyone’s supposed to be at work. Hope none of my classes start close to that time.
The bus ride to Nikko was pretty uneventful. I decided that sleep would be pretty good, and for the first half of the ride, it worked. And then the girl in front of me started talking about anime.
Not just talking about Anime. I mean, talking about it. Describing every little scene in episode 270 of some show. Like a Japanese wannabe trekkie or something. And then she described the ending of the series, and how the fans were pissed, so they made a movie… I wish I had a gun at that point. Or a working iPod. I had neither.
On the second part of the ride (after a short break), I sat with Francisco from El Salvador, which alleviated the pain of more anime talk from up front.
Nikko was an interesting place. We visited two different shrines, and a temple. Our tour guide explained the difference on the bus. Buddhism and Shintoism. Though talking to Francisco I forgot which one was which.
The shrines were gorgeous, though I though there were too many people around. So I decided that it would be better for me to wake up early in the morning and come up myself. After walking around the shrines and temples, we were taken to our Ryokan, our traditional Japanese hotel for the night.
The ryokan was interesting, and we’d finally sleep on futons. No not foldable college futons. Real futons. And there was an ofuro as well. A hot tub with spring water. This was a geo-thermal zone after all. The tatami mats in the rooms looked really snazzy too. Some of the guys dressed up in yukata, the male kimonos and pranced around the hotel.
Dinner was funky as well. We walked into the banquet hall and there were over 50 individual tables for all of us. And on the table were a bunch of plates. They had raw beef too. Surely we weren’t going to eat raw beef. That was true.
The ladies came around with lighters and lit underneath the plate. The beef was cooked right in front of us. So we could make sure it was up to our standards. That was phenomenal. I enjoyed every bit of it. And then I also threw some of my raw fish on there to cook it up a little bit. My fire ran out soon and I was stranded with some sakana on my plate.
But no fear, the sushi monsters came by and ate it.
Most of the guys went to jump into the hot spring tubs. But I decided that I would chill a little bit and go to bed. I’d be getting up at 5 am the next day. Needed to be ready.
I woke up at around 6 actually. Didn’t feel the need to get up at daybreak. Sleep was precious to me. Even at 6 it was really damn cold. I walked down to this bridge, and then walked back up the hill to the shrines. Definitely a lot more zen with nobody around. Though I did expect there to be some sort of fog in the morning. It was too cold though. After a while, small flakes of something started to fall out of the sky. I thought some of the trees might be losing some flowers or something (it is spring). I was wrong.
The drive up the mountain was pretty cool, except for the few flakes turning into a massive blizzard. We went up 44 hairpin turns. Thought my stomach wouldn’t agree. At the top of the mountain we stopped and went outside. The wind howled as the blizzard continued. The temples looked really nice with the red paint and the snow covering everything. But it was still coming down in droves.
We went on to the first waterfall we were supposed to visit, and the snow kept coming. I slipped down some steps. But it was worth it. The views were wonderful. We went to another waterfall as well, which was about 300 feet high. More than that actually because we had to go down an elevator for over a 100 meters. At that point most everybody was tired. It was cold, VERY WINDY, and grey. Icky for the most part.
We piled back onto the bus and were hit with Tokyo’s reality within 2 hours. Traffic and congestion. And urban sprawl. Oh Tokyo.
On a lesser note, on the way home I walked onto one of the trains and took a spot out in the open by the door. About two stops down, the train had more people on there, but a lot of space was available. The third stop, three people get on the train including a lady, and out of the entire car, she chooses to stand right in front of me, an inch away. Talk about invading personal space on an empty train. Crazy Japanese.
Photos are coming…..
posted by Piotr Jakubowski at 7:25 AM
1 Comments:
looks great man, i'm jealous.
you're looking like cweeks with all that fucking gear around your neck.
keep rockin it.. have you found a lab to run your film @?
i'm sure theres more than enough places.
ciao mate!
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