Nikko 日光, Japan Trip (Day 4)

30th December 2014, Tuesday

Nio-mon Gate

Today, we were going back to Nikko again but this time we will be visiting the popular shrines and temples there. We left the hotel early today too but this time we bought our breakfast from 松屋 and then made our way to Tokyo Train Station. Then we went the same way as the day before to Nikko, but this time there was super foggy when we passed some towns. It was totally white in color, cannot even see anything outside and we saw a lot of snow. The temperature in Nikko is 0 degrees celsius and it was drizzling too. Today, we noticed there were more people going to Nikko, compared to yesterday. We reached there around 10.30 am and then we took the public heritage bus to the first temple which was the further away, Taiyuinbyo Temple (This time, we didn't alight on the wrong bus stop). There were some remaining snow around the ground and the ground was also very wet. The temple was also under repair works, so one of the main gate was covered with scaffolds. There was a golden door which was shinning very brightly as the sun shone on it, when we first saw it, we were wowing. There was a Haiden-Honden Hall, which the halls were connected in a 'H' shape and it was built with gold too. There was a golden arrow which costs around $8800 yen and it is meant for you to put at home as a charm to ward off evils. The golden arrow was a weapon used by one of the gods standing guard at the gate.

"Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil, See no Evil"

 After exploring this temple, we walked to another temple. At the entrance of the temple, there were boxes where you put a small amount of money (eg: $100 or $300 yen) to buy a fortune paper/charm for yourself. We bought 1 small little stone, in the form of crescent shape which has different meanings for each individual color. Then we went in to another temple ground with the entrance fee $200 yen. Not sure what temple was that, there was some mini games which you can also play with them as you walk by. There were also very big trees which were more than hundred of years old. After spending some time exploring the temple, we walked down to Toshogu Shrine, which was the oldest shrine in Nikko. The entrance fee for this temple costs $1300 yen per adult and there were some famous cravings like the sleeping cat, the see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil monkeys. As we walked in, we saw the monkeys cravings on one of the houses. There were many difference cravings on the monkeys with different explanations like a mother monkey is looking at the future of the child...and the child grew to be independent. There were 2 big storehouses opposite the cravings too. After this, we reached the Yomeimon Gate. The Yomeimon Gate was under repairs, so the whole gate was covered with scaffolds. And as we entered, the golden door of the main shrine greeted us. The door was shining brightly too and it was made of real gold.

Sleeping Cat

600 years old Spiritual Tree

We turned to the left side and went to the Sakashitamon Gate, where the staff checked our tickets for the sleeping cat shrine. There were many people around the temple, today a busy day it seems. We had to queue to go to the sleeping cat shrine. There was a famous craving on the sleeping cat on the gate and once we passed the gate, there was a long flight of stairs to climb up and it was very tiring to climb in cold weather. By the time we reached the top, we were panting. And the shrine wasn't very big, there were a priest that will ask everyone to come closer and he will start doing some ritual to bless all the people who came. Then he will ask everyone to walk in one direction to the back and back to the stairs for exit. We had to walk in single line and slowly, as we walked, we noticed there was another queue to pray to a big hole in a 600 years old super big tree. There was a sign that indicated that if you pray to the tree, your wishes will be fulfilled. We just walked up to the front and prayed at it and left...hohohoho...Then we went to queue to buy the sleeping cat bells for keepsake and went down the stairs to the main shrine. After that, we went to the main shrine which we had to take off our shoes to enter. Photography is not allowed in the main shrine and we just went in to take a look at the shrine. After visiting the main shrine, we went to the crying dragon shrine. Here too, the staff checked our tickets again. But my friend doesn't want to take off her shoes to go in the shrine. So i went ahead, my feet were frozen the whole day as we had to take off shoes a few times. Inside the shrine, i had to queue for my turn to go in the hall (at least no need to climb stairs again). As i moved in to the hall, i saw a very big drawing of a dragon up on the ceiling and there was a priest standing there and got everyone to come in as much as we can before he began. Then he began and introducing the crying dragon hall in Japanese...heheee...of course i don't understand what he is explaining. But at the later part of his speech, he took 2 blocks of wood and clapped them directly under the mouth of the dragon. And there was a bright ringing sound echoing back, but when he moved away from the dragon's mouth and clapped the woods again, there was no echo returned (very interesting..). So that's why the shrine is being called as Honjido Hall. There were also 12 Luo Han statues in the hall, which later i realized each one of the Luo Hans represent to each Zodiac animal. After the introduction by the priest, we were told to leave the hall by the other way, where purchases of the bells and charms are along the way out.

Crying Dragon Bells

Long-shaped Bao

Shinkyo Bridge

I bought 2 of the crying dragon bells, cos the ringing of the bells was different from the normal bells. Very unique...hehehee...I gave 1 of the bells to my friend, cos she didn't went in to see the crying dragon.  After the crying dragon shrine, we went out of the temple where there were some stalls outside the temple. We saw a stall selling baos, there was 1 interesting bao, it was long in shape which costs $50 yen. My friend so funny, she still asked me to wait for an ang mo to buy and then see his face whether he is happy or sad after taking the 1st bite. And guess what, the guy overheard us and turned around and told us the bao was still very hotz and he couldn't take the first bite yet. lol....Anyway we went ahead and bought 1 for ourselves to try...it wasn't that bad, quite nice actually. Then we walked down to Rinnoji Temple, we ended up there but the main entrance was covered by a scaffolding, which had us confused. We thought we haven't reached the temple but actually we had reached. But anyway we saw the staffs starting to sweep the floor of the place and the tickets office were closed. So we didn't went in to visit this temple. Then we just walked the way down and saw the founder of Nikko Temples statue and the Shinkyo Bridge, which was the entrance point for Nikko's shrines and temples. It costs about $200 yen to enter the bridge. We took photos outside (without entering the bridge) before walking down the streets of Nikko to walk back to the JR train station. We passed a snack shop selling bbq rice balls, which we bought 1 stick to eat and post office where i posted postcards back to SG. It costs $70 yen to post to anywhere in the world...hehehe...Then we passed a Hello Kitty shop, where everything is Hellow Kitty item. It even has Hello Kitty Lucky bags, which i asked my friend to buy 1 for her friend who is crazy about Hello Kitty.

Fried Red Bean Buns..Must Try!!!

BBQ Salmon

Then we saw there was a long queue queuing at a stall, which was selling deep fried red bean buns. It was just opposite Tobu-Nikko station. We just went to queue for it too, without knowing what the stall selling at first. We bought 3 of them to eat on the train on our way back. And after getting the red bean buns, we walked to the JR Nikko station. Then it was the same route back to Tokyo station, the fried red bean buns were very yummy, should buy more of it. Went to check out the toilet on the train too, it was very big and spacious. This time we alighted in Ueno station and took the metro to Shinjuku. As this time was abit early when we reached there, most of the shops were still open. We went in to Uniqlo to shop around, it was a whole building with 4 or 5 levels of clothes to shop. We also went to BIC camera building to shop around and went to Japan's biggest pachinko building. First time went inside to have a peek on the mini balls machines. We had our dinner at Ootoya inside one of the buildings there. I ordered pork cutlet set and my friend ordered the salmon. The salmon tasted much nicely than the port cutlet and so i was stealing her share on the fish...hehehee...After the dinner, we walked on the streets to find the Apple Store there. But we found out that the Apple Store is located in Shibuya and not Shinjuku using the displayed ipads in BIC Camera shop. After which we took the metro back to the hotel and rested after a long day.

Hotel Stayed:
APA Hotel - Hanzomon Hirakawacho

Nikko Edomura 日光江戸村, Japan Trip (Day 3)

29th December 2014, Monday

Today, we are going to a Japanese cultural theme park in Nikko called Nikko Edomura (Edo Wonderland). We are going there to see samurais and ninja during Edo period....hohoho....We got up around 6 plus and left the hotel to take the train to Nikko. We had to take the metro to Tokyo station and take a train down to Nikko and our JR pass are activated today (so our train rides on any JR lines are free).....We went to the JR office in Tokyo station and booked seats reservation for our ride today. We also booked the same time trains for tomorrow (as we are going back to Nikko again), the staff looked at us puzzled when we asked him to book the same route for us tomorrow. We had to do a transfer train at Utsunomiya station and take the Nikko line. Finding the train platform is also very challenging there, because first you need to know what type of trains you are taking and then go into the gate, only then you can see your train platform number (they don't print it on the train tickets). Another way, is just ask the train staff...they will tell you which platform is your train going to arrive. Most of the long distance trains are by shinkansen, so we were following the direction to get to shinkansen ticket gate and on our way to the gate, we bought a box of brum cakes and a cold bento to eat on the train. The bento that were selling at the station to eat on the train are basically all cold....and they are not cheap too....lol...And after buying the food, we went in to the gate and before entering, we checked with the train staff on whether we were on the right place and which platform we need to go up....It was still early when we went in, we bought a chocolate drink from the vending machine and it was hot...somehow the bottle was warm when it was dispensed out...amazing....

Mount and Striaght Baumkuchen Cakes

Cold Bento

Then we went up to our platform and waited for our train to arrive. When the train arrived, the train cleaning team went in and do cleaning and even turned the seats around for the opposite direction. We noticed some teams had completed cleaning but were waiting for the rest of the teams in other cars to complete. And after some time, the whole team stood outside of each car and bowed to the passengers and greeted before letting the passengers to aboard (very got process). And so, we boarded the train, we were so impressed with the train (we got the green class pass). The seats were very spacious and the train clean too and we got very big leg space too. We were wowing when we boarded...like mountain turtles...hahaha...but it was really very enjoyable...After the train left Tokyo, we started to eat the food we bought for breakfast...and enjoyed looking at the views from the window....It was about 45 mins to reach Utsunomiya station and after we alighted the station, we had to walk down the station and enter to another gate for Nikko line. As both are under the same train company, we can use our JR pass to take the Nikko line. Our train was always at the platform waiting, it was set to leave at 10.10 am. There are 6 stations, including Nikko station and the whole journey will take about 45 mins too. We got on the train, which was like a metro train and sat on the seats to wait for the train to leave. There were many people on board too, and the heater was super powerful...basically we were so hotz inside with our jackets on. We had to tahan until we reached Nikko station. All the people alighted at Nikko station, so the station was kind of packed when we alighted and we had to show our JR pass to get out of the ticket gates.

Nikko, World Heritage site

Mountains with Snow

We were trying to find the bus stop where the free shuttle to Edo Wonderland was. Almost waited at the wrong bus stop, there was a sign with Edo Wonderland picture at the bus stop and there was 3 bus timings for it. We had missed the first bus time and so we had to wait until 11.20 am for the next bus. There were snow mountains surrounding Nikko and the clouds were floating around the mountains, it was very cold today too. There were pigeons sleeping on the tree branches too...There was even a stone outside the station with Nikko crystal water flowing for passers-by to drink...very refreshing and clean...heheee....There were many people taking the public places to go the shrines, there were only 3 groups (including us) going to Edo Wonderland. So we were just jumping around while waiting for the shuttle bus to come. Finally the bus came and we boarded. It was about half an hour ride to the theme park, and we went to get our tickets when we arrived. There was a long road to walk before we were greeted by some villagers from Edo period at the village entrance. And there were old old houses used during the Edo period, the first house we saw was a taxi-service house. There were also samurais standing around in the village, there was a shrine called O-Edo Tenmangu Shrine. There were also shows performing at certain times and games to play. The village was big too and everything displayed were during Edo period.

Comedy Stage Play

Ninja Show

Hell Temple

There was a play going on when we reached the main square, and of course the dialog was in Japanese. But because there was a lot of expressions and actions from the actors and actresses, we can roughly guess what was happening. It was kind of a comedy with some fighting actions and they ended by singing a song with all the good guys and bad guys. After the play, we went to the theater nearby and went for a ninja action play, which last about 15 mins. This play was more on ninja and samurai fighting, without almost no dialog but they had good effects and lighting (Photographs and videos are not allowed). And while you are queuing, the ninja will pass you a transparent paper but they didn't tell you what is it for. Until when the narrator inside the theater explained, actually the paper is for you to wrap your rubbish and then to throw onto the stage before you leave...hahahaa....After the show, we came out and took a photo with 2 ninjas....After that, we went to a Hell Temple beside it....kekeke...My friend kept on scaring me by making scary sounds...Inside the temple, there was hell king and some other scary stuffs, pretty much like the Chinese Hell too. Behind was a father and son, i think the son also got scared by my friend...hahaha....After we came out from the Hell Temple, we went into an archery game house...W bought a voucher to play archery. It costs $600 yen for 5 arrows..and the bow was made of wood and it was those ancient type. We each took turns to try to shoot..hahaa..all missed, can't get 1 arrow to hit and we got a postcard as a consolation prize.

Sweet Corn

BBQ Skewers

Pinwheel Darts Game

After playing, we went out to the streets and saw a house with heavy smoke coming out. So i went over to have a peek, it was selling bbq skewers and there was a long queue of people buying. I went to queue to buy too..hehhee...while my friend went further down the streets to look for her corn (she saw got people eating corns).  The BBQ skewers each costs $500 yen, we got 1 chicken and 1 pork. It was yummy, and the corn was sweet too. While we were queuing, we saw a group of kids chasing a 'thief' around the village and there was a samurai telling the kids how to catch the thief. The kids were all having so much fun chasing and eventually, they caught the thief successfully. After buying the skewers, we stood outside a house (where you can cook your own rice crackers) and ate our bbq skewers. After that, we went to other houses to see what do they have. We went into a game house where we played pinwheel darts and gun shooting games. Each costs $600 yen. There was a Japanese couple playing before us and the guy was trying very hard to get a hit on the dart board. He had bought 2 times to play and finally he did hit once in the board after some time. The staff even tried showed them how to shoot, and we were super impressed with her when she threw the dart lightly and it really hit on the board!! It seems like to her, it was so easy. Then we gave it a try, it wasn't that easy. Cos the darts were very light (wasn't much weight) and there were no feathers to support it. Of course, we didn't hit it on the board....hahaaa...but at least it did touched the board and fell...Then later the couple went over to play the gun shooting and the lady was expert on this. She hit a few times while her boyfriend didn't hit once, so the guy went to buy the vouchers to try to hit it (seems like they were having challenge). Hohoho....they were having so much fun and we also had fun looking at them. We too tried out luck in the shooting game, we didn't even hit once...so lousy....hahahaha

Cooked Rice Cracker

Nice View with Clear Water

After the fun, we went to the house to cook rice crackers. It was interesting, we used charcoal to cook it. It costs $150 yen for one rice crackers. We put the sweet sauce onto the cracker once it had turned golden brown. The staff gave us an english instructions on how to cook the rice crackers but the 2 staffs were also helping everyone to check whether the crackers were ok to put the sauce over.  It took us about 5 to 10 mins to have the rice crackers to be done. After cooking the crackers, we went walk exploring the rest of the village. We went into a house where there were statues exhibit on the Edo Period history. After that, we went outside taking stroll and saw fishes swimming along the side drains....Then we went inside an empty to take a peek too, we had to take our shoes and it was very cold. After that, we walked back to the main street and there was a parade which was about to end. So we only got to see the ending and after the parade, we noticed people were starting to leave the village. Then we went back to the bbq house to buy the skewers again and we got the rice balls too. After eating, we also started to make our way back to the entrance. When we reached near the guard house, i saw a samurai sitting there from far. My friend was walking ahead of me and she walked quite near to the guard house. And ahhhh....the samurai jumped at her and gave her a fright...hahahaa...so funny...We both had a great laugh on it....Later we went back to take a photo with the samurai. The samurai even gave his best pose for us...kekeke

Foot Onsen

Late Dinner

 Then we went off and bought a super big pork bao on the way out too. We went to the bus stop and waited for the public bus, since the last free shuttle bus to JR Nikko station had already left. We had to take the public bus and go up to Kinugawa-onsen Station. And from there, we had to take train (with a transfer at Shimo-Maichi station) to Tobu-Nikko station, where we can walk back to JR station. As we had missed the train and had to wait for the next available train, we went walk around nearby Kinugawa-onsen station. There was even a foot onsen outside the station for people to relax their feet. We walked to the shops to pass time, and after that, we went to take the train back to JR Nikko station, where we had to take the Nikko line back to Utsunomiya station and take the JR line back to Tokyo station. By the time we reached Tokyo, it was about 9 pm. But we still took the JR Yamanote line to Shinjuku station. It was a very long route, cos this line was stopping many stations. We were quite tired when we reached Shinjuku, so we decided to just eat dinner and then go back to the hotel. Went in a bento restaurant to eat dinner but my friend wasn't having much appetite, so i ate my bento and then we took the train back to our hotel to rest. Notice there was a carriage for women only during peak hours time..hohohoho....

Hotel Stayed:
APA Hotel - Hanzomon Hirakawacho