Nikko

Yes yes, I do realize that I haven't even written a post for Kamakura yet, but if I don't do Nikko, then it may turn in to Kamakura and no one will ever know what I'm doing. And you'd all hate that, wouldn't you?

So Thursday morning we took a road trip about two hours north of Tokyo to a place called Nikko, which in Japanese means "sun's light." Nikko was a drastic change from Tokyo--it has one main street with little shops and then the rest of it is all ryokan and famous shrines and temples. The first that we went to, of course, was the Toshogu Shrine.

Now, you can't go to Nikko and not see the Toshogu Shrine. It's the resting place for the soul of Ieyasu Tokugawa, the last Shogun of Japan. Nikko is mostly mountains, so besides the somewhat nauseating drive up the mountain we had the sweaty experience of hiking up the mountain side to visit the shrine in the first place. Nikko was only a little less hot than Tokyo, mind you, so it really was quite a sweaty experience. It was well worth it however, in my opinion. I think there were honestly more foreigners there than native Japanese. The guide pointed out a lot of things at the Toshogu Shrine, most of which I honestly can't remember. However, I do know that the Toshogu shrine is the original place for the three wise monkeys (sanbiki no saru) that "hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" (or in Japanese mizaru, kikazaru, iwazaru). One of the stables near the entrance had the monkeys carved there, said to ward off evil spirits that might seek to harm the Shogun's favorite horse. I definitely ended up with three or four souvenirs just of the monkeys. So cute!

All around the path up to the shrine where the Shogun's soul is supposed to rest is lined with gifts from friendly nations (which only included Korea, China, and the Netherlands, to be fair) so there were some interesting things of different styles all around the gate, including one large revolving lantern from the king of the Netherlands. We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the innermost shrine, since it was all original materials that hadn't been touched in nearly 250 years since they had been created, so after leaving and walking almost all the way back down the mountain again, a couple of us went over to the nearby Futarasan Shrine.

I think I liked this shrine a little better. There were far less people, and we could just walk around and take pictures and admire the scenery. The trees were huge--it reminded me a lot of being in Washington State with my grandparents as far as the size and sheer numbers of trees. But everywhere there were dragonflies, all different colors and buzzing overhead. The first one that flew into my face freaked me out quite a bit, but after that I was okay. The Futarasan Shrine was less ornate than the Toshogu Shrine, but it felt more natural than its neighbor, which I enjoyed. We all bought more mikuji (fortunes) there and then walked back to the group.

The ryokan where we stayed was just amazing. It's a traditional Japanese inn, with tatami mat floors and low tables that you have to kneel at to use. We fit around five people per room, so we were a little cramped, but its all a part of the experience. They left us tea with little cups and a real tea pot, and a set of yukata robes. Our ryokan was also an onsen, or hot springs, so a couple of the girls immediately went downstairs to go take a dip. The rest of us stayed upstairs and had some tea before dinner. We had some fun trying to get the yukata on, let me tell you. Those robes are a lot more difficult than they look, and it was good that someone remembered that there was a special method for tucking them in before you tie them. For all you future Japan goers--when wearing a yukata, remember to tuck the right side in first, and then the left side over that. Otherwise it signifies death and a funeral.

After dinner we were given free time, which of course meant that a large number of us decided that it was time to invade the town of Nikko and find the only karaoke bar in the entire town and scare the poor woman at the counter half to death when a good 20 gaijin come laughing in and asking to rent a room. There was alcohol consumed, of course, and several renditions of songs that I don't advise singing in a group. I think that Bohemian Rhapsody was by far my favorite, especially the part when the entire group broke in to a head banging session of the Wayne's World variety. So much awesomeness there.

The next day (after a strange breakfast of tofu and raw egg) we headed up 1,500 meters above sea level via the Iroha-zaka road. If I thought that the ride to Nikko made me a little carsick, then it was nothing compared to the Iroha-zaka. It was built with one tightly wound curve for each character in the Japanese syllabary, which at the time of its creation was 48 characters. 24 back and forth curves on the way up, and another 24 on the way back down, on a huge bus that swayed dangerously every time we turned. Not the most exciting thing, but having survived the experience, I can say that in a smaller car it would have been interesting. At the top of the mountain, we visited two different waterfalls: the Ryuzu and the Kegon. The Kegon Falls are the more famous of the two. In ancient Japan, when two lovers were unable to bring their love to fruition, they would jump together off the side of the falls and be together in the afterlife. It was a tragic way of proving your love to one another. And having seen the falls myself, I think it must have hurt quite a bit. You couldn't pay me enough to jump that, even in a barrel Niagara Falls style. It still makes for a beautiful picture though.

Finally we drove south a ways to where we visited the famous Coco Farm Winery, which is one of the most interesting places in Japan that I have seen so far. The farm doubles as an institution for mentally challenged people in Japan, who are normally shunned by their families and kept in complete reclusion from the world. At the farm, they learn to work, tending to the vineyards and growing shiitake mushrooms along the mountainside. Japan isn't really suited to grape growing, but the people at Coco have make it work. They have around 100 mentally challenged people, aged from 16 to 81, doing all the manual labor around the farm. We got to see and talk to several of them, and despite the fact that my Japanese was not very advanced and her English was non-existent, I managed to talk to one of the workers for several minutes as she told me all about how her work was so hard and she was tired from walking up and down the mountainside everyday. I managed to ask her if she liked living here, and she nodded very happily. It was so interesting to see a group of people taking such pride in their work when the rest of the country considers them to be a black streak on their population. And their wine was amazing, if I do say so myself. We got to taste both the red and white that they produced last season, as well as observe the process through which the wine is cooled and the "sparkling" added to sparkling wines. I bought a bottle for my host family (as well as the sparkling grape juice for myself) because I was so impressed with the quality of the wine and the people who created it.

We got back to Yotsuya yesterday night, but I needed a chance to sleep before I could get any of this out. Seeing the length of this, I don't know that I would have been coherent at all last night. More pictures are posted here.

Mata ne!