Noodles in Nikko or 'I Don't Think You're Ready for this Sake'

Day 2 started off with Andromeda making us a traditional Japanese breakfast of banana pancakes, lol....not They were delicious however and we were going to need the energy for the long day ahead. We were up by 5:15 and heading to the subway by 6:45 to catch a train to Nikko for the day.

Accompanying the 4 of us were 2 more of Andromeda's friends. Brianna (another performer at Tokyo Disney) and her visiting husband Brian.

We took a city bus to the subway and then 2 subways to the train station for Nikko. It was still relatively early so we missed the masses of people expected on a Tokyo subway, but as we were on the trains longer, we started to see the crowds arriving and bustling.

After several attempts to find the right train, being told our JR pass will not work (no explanation given) and buying new tickets, we took a quick walk to the streets outside to buy some coffee and watch the people on their way to work and finally boarded a train to Nikko at 8:10am.

We arrived in the Nikko train and bus terminal just before 10am. We figured out what we wanted to see while there and purchased our day pass for the busses that would take us to the various temples and sites. Unfortunatley, we missed the bus to see the waterfalls first and had to wait for the busses to the temples.

I can't remember all the names of the temples off hand, so Sue and I will add them at a later posting. Nikko Temples: Tosho-gu Shrine and Rinno-ji Temple.

We hiked up the hills through the sequence of shinto shrines and temples. There were several school groups there, so hundreds of kids in color coded hats kept passing us with their tour guides as we took in the overwhelming group of temples. Ascending the hill in the heat and humidity was draining and we took a quick break having some udon noodles and egg, while the others had some ice cream.

Then we headed back to Nikko station to get the bus which would take us on the 50 minute trip to the Kogen waterfall.

At the station I heard someone say, "Sean". I turned around to see Jerry, a former co-worker from The Web, waiting for his boyfriend to pick up tickets to the same place we were going. What a small small world. We talked a bit and may try to meet up back in Tokyo sometime this week.

The bus took us further up into the mountains. The last sign I read on the road said we were 1100m above see level and the bus continued at least another 10 minutes winding it's way up the cliff to the Chozenji lake (I think that's wrong) and Kogen waterfall. We took a quick stop and ordered some pizza before heading to the falls and refuel our waning energy. A 300m walk from the bus station and we were at one of the most beautiful natural scenes. I plummeting falls of 100m roared as we gazed through the mist at the cascade of white. We took tons of pictures and decided to take the 530yen elevator ride to the bottom (about 5 dollars).

At the bottom were 3 different leveled terraces that over looked another smallers falls (somewhat obscured by the trees) and an amazing view of the towering Kegon. The mist coated our hair in dew and we just soaked in the mositure and stared at the crystal blue river where the falls continued it's journey down the mountain.

Brian and Brianna headed back to Tokyo because she worked the following day. Andromeda, Aiden, Sue and I stopped at a local restaurant and ordered some sake and Aided had some ramen noodles too. Sue and Andromeda were giggling away after a couple shots of sake and continued to plunge into tipsiness after finishing the small bottle. Sue bopped me in the head with her fan and was feeling 'trashed' while Aiden and I ordered another oken (warm sake).

We finished up at the restaurant and stumbled over to the lake (well some of us stumbled). Took a few more pictures until the battery and space on the memory card ran out. It was a serene moment with just the four of us, a few passer bys and families at the lake with the sun setting. Fisherman were out in their boats and casting from a dock. We sat there for some time, just relaxing and taking it all in.

We needed to get back to Nikko though and had a 50 minute bus ride ahead so we went back to the station, just missed a bus, and waited around 20 more minutes for the next one. During our wait we practiced legs kicks, and heard how Andromeda was not cast in certain parts in school while other less talented and lighter skinned girls were given the rolls. We decided they just weren't ready for her 'jelly', a reference to a Destiny's Child song called 'Bootylicious'.

We had secured lodging at the Turtle Inn Nikko which has a natural spring on-sen inside. We were all very excited to try this after a long day of walking. Andromeda, still feeling the effects of the sake, needed some food so we had some awesome Indian food near the Nikko terminal at a spot called Asian Garden. There were some other European tourists eating with us and then we hopped a cab to the Turtle Inn. Sue and I quickly changed and hopped in the on-sen where we had a private room and were able to on-sen nude. I almost passed out in about 10 minutes and decided to lay along the edge while Sue sayed in a little longer. We left the on-sen around 10pm, headed up to bed, and were asleep almost instantly. Day 2 was done.

Day 3 has started and Sue is still sleeping. Our plans today are to take the JR train back to Tokyo and check out Shinjuku, the largest street crossing intersection in the world. We will get our first dose of central Tokyo. Later tonight we are meeting one of Andromeda's fans and watching the largest fireworks display of the year at Asakusa Park. Not sure what the evening will have in store yet, as tomorrow we are heading to Kyoto for a couple days.

New word/phrase for the day

oishi kata: It was delicious.

New queen word/phrase of the day

nanka yo: You got something to say? You wanna step to me? (Head-bobbing and finger-pointing are a must for this.)