A day trip to Nikko to view the bridge
Still not 100% healthy, I was determined to go to nature anyway, but no ascent of mount anything yet.
Instead I paid a hefty fee to go to Nikko.
My intended train was full of tour groups going to ooh and aah at leaves changing color, so I had to wait an hour and take a slower train.
I thought to myself, whats an extra 45 minutes each way, and then I worked it out, 90 minutes.
The ride in each direction was about 2 hours and 15 minutes, which now that I can do maths as proven above, is 135 minutes.
Thats a long time but there would be a lot to see out the window and the soothing clickety clack of the train line.
That idea vanished as soon as I got on board, and Japanese people ensured every single blind was pulled all the way down, for the duration of the journey. The same happened on the way back. No view. Maybe I am in North Korea and theres things you cant see between Tokyo and Nikko. I will never know.
I did get to see a special boy who I think lives on the train, because he did not get off at Nikko, and was there waiting on the train when I came back later. His main activity on the train was to pull very hard on his ears which seemed visibly stretched from years of doing so, and make train noises as he walked through the carriage.
I felt safe knowing that train boy was there to guard us.
So instead of looking out the window, I fell into a stupor, slowly nodding in my seat and marvelling at all the snoring Japanese people on the completely full train with no bathroom and no vending machine.
Nikko better be good....
It was ok. I wouldnt make a day of it, but I did. I wanted to climb the mountain but thats a 2 day at least excursion sleeping on the mountain with no transport to the base of the mountain other than hitch hiking.
The town is compared to Kamakura as the Kyoto of the North, I dont think its as nice, its certainly smaller and appears a bit run down.
The temples all have separate admission fees, and most are under heavy restoration, as you shall see below. Also EVERYWHERE in Nikko is paranoid about no photos. Even standing outside a shop with my camera sent a woman crazy with yelling NO PHOTO!
My top tip for Tokyo day trip, go to Kamakura not Nikko. Maybe Hakone is good, but its currently closed still due to all the people being stoned to death by the volcano.
The train station to Nikko is near the skytree, so I took a photo. It might have been culled but due to NO PHOTO! later in the day, it stays.
This is the train I took. It loses carriages along the way, which is weird because everyone on it is going to Nikko, so as they take carriages off, more and more people squeeze into the few remaining.
It must be something to do with the size of the station I think.
I didnt actually stop for lunch, because I couldnt find anything around the temple area except ice cream and potato chips.
Back in the town I could have had whale it seems, but by then I was full of ice cream.
This is the famous bridge. You wont believe this, but theres a fee to walk across it. You pay $4, and walk from one side, to the other. I think you can walk back and forth if you want. Or you can stand here and take a photo instead. NO PHOTO!
The guy selling tickets to stand on the bridge was adamant I cant take a photo from a public street.
This is the ticket booth for the bridge walk. Nice leaves.
Apparently, a phone box. A woman charged out of the shop to tell me off for taking a photo. I was going to buy something from the bakery there. Guess not.
I felt this area was secluded enough to risk taking my camera out without getting yelled at.
This is the famous temple. Note it is a shed. They have constructed a shed over the temple whilst its being restored, but still charge admission to go in the shed.
Pay to look inside a construction site? Sign me up! There were very dusty statues inside, it took all of 3 minues to walk through with a guy following me holding a no photo sign hurrying me along.
Best view of the day, there are temples and whatever down each side, each has its own admission fee. Why you cant buy a ticket to visit them all I dont know.
A group of school kids being advised to not take any photos.
Now thats where I should have been, but alas it was not to be.
Bonus photo of very impressive mountain range. A slightly bigger mountain is just to the left and behind it, Mount Nantai which is very popular among climbers but you need a car to get to it.
Exploring Asakusa at night
No sooner had I returned from Nikko and it was time to head out the door again.
I headed away from the local Ueno station, to see where I ended up. Asakusa as it turns out, where the main temple in Tokyo is.
I have been here before, during the day, a couple of times I think. I get the feeling the whole shopping and tourist experience in the streets surrounding the temple has expanded 10 fold in the last few years, with a lot more closed off and covered streets.
There are a whole heap of Korean and Chinese restaurants, but the food they had on offer looked really very poor, I quickly decided no to Bi Bim Bap Japan style.
There are also a lot of nice looking sit on the floor with your shoes off restaurants in the back streets, but the lack of prices on the menu and the fact they only seat about 4 people at a time tells me they cost $1000.
I dont know why, but there were a lot of people walking around with floral tributes on sticks, maybe this happens every night here, it seemed to be pretty casual, like, good evening, hi, yes this is my elaborate gold leaf covered flowers surrounded message on a stick, nice weather today.
You can wander all around the temple at night, if you wish, and plenty of people were. This may be the best time to visit, as all the souvenir shops were closing and the tour groups were long gone.
I did however get asked if I wanted to hear about the lord, by young Japanese people, actually in broken English they told me 'we are here tonight to spread good news' I just asked Jesus? and they said YES! like I was going to join in, to which I gave them some really bad news to counter their good news.
The infamous mega Don Quixote in Asakusa, their motto is 'the palace of real cheapness', the cause for excess luggage fees for flights leaving Japan to China. They now have aquariams and live shows.
Covered shopping streets are almost empty. Many of these specialise in knives and chef supplies if I remember correctly.
During the day you cannot move here, everyone is buying a mini eifel tower saying Japan on it.
This one had me puzzled. I tried to lean and get spotted to find out what they meant or why they meant it.
CLOSED
I was having flashbacks to earlier today.
The temple, in its night time glory, no one around to enforce the no photos rule.
An American gentlemen with his full on tripod and huge lense on the go saw me walk past and take my photo hand held with no flash.
He exclaimed with great confidence, 'Well thats not going to work out for you son' and so I showed him my perfectly exposed shot. This had him completely baffled and angry.
My now ancient Sony RX100 is still the greatest night photo camera of all time. I dont care that its 'cheating' I just leave it on intelligent auto+ and hold the button.
I desperately wanted omurice for dinner, but couldnt find it. Hunger got the better of me so I had ramen, making sure to get the egg. As soon as I finished and left I went around the corner and there was a specialist omurice place right in front of me.
I drowmed my lack of omurice sorrows with a delicious refreshing fermented carbonated soy milk drink.