yokoso japan! - Part III Nikko

arrived nikko at nightfall. with GPS, finding the quaint ryokan by the riverside, annex turtle hotori-an, was a breeze.



















the darkness of the night obscured the river so we heard the roaring waters before we saw it.

the ryokan had a communal hot bath fed with water from the nikko hot springs with a splendid river view. we got up early one morning when the first light came just so we can have a view of the river while having a hot bath. i am proud to say we beat all the other guests to it.

in case you are wondering, that is not me in the picture but i have smudged it out anyway to protect the privacy of the person. also, in this way, you can mentally insert whoever you wish to see having a hot bath in such a beautiful setting.















we encountered a rainy spell while in nikko. it was unusually heavy and reported all over the news. see, such heavy rain pouring down from the roof gutter.






















not daunted by the weather, we bravely ventured out, armed with flimsy little umbrellas, to tour the world heritage temples and shrines. note that we used transparent umbrellas so as not to block views in the photos.



this was the first stop - Bake Jizo at the kanmangafuchi abyss, sitting pretty next to the Daiya river.
















next stop were a cluster of temples and shrines. we got a combination ticket, which allows us to visit 3 temples/shrines over 2 days.

before we started on the temple tour, we visited the Shouyoen garden, a typical stroll garden of the Edo period. It is opposite the Rinnoji.

















strolling along... wah neng nang.... dah-da-dah-dah-da.. ji kee sio hoh sua....hou lu dua, wa lai chao gor lee, lee lai chao gor wa (hokkien song about walking together in the rain, sharing one umbrella)



















after this, we headed to Rinnoji, followed by Toshogu after lunch. it was still raining and raining and all the photos didnt turn out well. here's one of the rainy, misty, blurry shot of tosho-gu.















next day was bright sun shiny day. we went back to take pictures of rinnoji.
















smouldering cauldron at entrance to Rinnoji.


















next stop was Futarasan temple. an intricate pagoda in the temple grounds.


















that marked the end of the temple tour and we set off for Kegon waterfall. Along the way, we stopped by in the alpine area to take a picture. we braved the strong, cold winds for this picture.















final item in our Nikko 'to-see' checklist - Kegon falls. taking a tourist shot.

















Next: Part IV Matsumoto.

yokoso japan! - Part II Tokyo Outskirts

christmas day.
first thing in the morning, after checking out of the hostel, we went to collect our rental car from the Nissan-rent-a-car outlet at Ueno. we had booked it online the day before from the ToCoo! website, which lini found. great thing is the website is in english, they have english-speaking staff and they offer big discounts from the walk-in rate. however, the Nissan-rent-a-car had not received the booking from ToCoo!. we knew ToCoo! could not possibly have processed the booking so soon but decided to just turn up at the rental car shop anyways. after several phone calls to ToCoo!, negotiating with the non-english-speaking car rental staff (using pictionary method), we managed to get a good deal.

our christmas 'gift' - a Nissan note (j-speak: NOH-toh) which was to accompany us from Tokyo to Kyoto, with stops at a few towns along the way.













first destination: Ghibli museum (j-speak: G-boo-ree)
was a breeze locating the place with the car's GPS. (i love GPS!)

entering the magical land....














Totoro's real day-time job is selling tickets at the Ghibli museum


















other whimsical stuff at the museum


















































one last shot before leaving this magical castle.



















wait... one more shot... ok that's all.

















Next: Part III Nikko

yokoso japan! - Part I Tokyo

travel report: japan, 23 dec 06 - 5 jan 07

back in japan again, after 2005's trip of hits and misses (read previous japan report entrances & exits).

didnt want to spend a bland christmas and new year in singapore, so when lini asked if i would like to join her, lik and her Auntie Rose for a 2 week trip to japan, i thought, why not? in the end, i got more than what i bargained for.... this christmas and new year was to be far from bland.....

was very smooth journey to tokyo. l&l and lini's sister, cindy came to the Asakusa station to meet us. Auntie Rose's face turned pale when she saw the infinite no. of steps we had to take from the station to street level. And she turned paler minutes later when she saw how small our hostel room was.



we stayed 2 nights at Khaosan Tokyo Smile - clean, basic and close to the subway. free internet in the common room, which was great except that you sometimes have to put up with less-than-pleasant odours from other guests feet, as shoes were not allowed in that room. free flow of drinking water was actually just tap water filled into a dispenser unit that looked deceptively like those distilled-water-dispensers. lini caught the staff in action of filling up the container after a guest told him there was no more drinking water. ha-ha. the guest could have gotten the water himself from the tap next to the dispenser.

first night dinner was DIY okonomiyaki. the menu was entirely in japanese. but not to worry, they had a pictorial explanation of how to cook. also, we were lucky to have cindy with us. she speaks good japanese.



the okonomiyaki chef in action















after dinner, we headed to ginza for a walk. passed by these fantastic window displays.

the 'lips' were made of hundreds of red buttons.

the following day, beautiful blue skies...

this was the way from our hostel to the subway station...

past the famous golden 'turd' of asahi building...




then cross the Azuma-hashi (red bridge).










we headed to cindy's place at mita-cho, minato-ku. it is near the keio university. one of the tourist things to do when along the street where keio uni is: take photo with tokyo tower in background.


this is a business district so most of the eating places were not opened on a sunday morning. we were lucky to find one vending-machine soba-udon shop. this is how to order: first, look at the plastic food display outside the shop, take a good hard look at the name of the meal you want to order (all in japanese characters), then go into the shop, spend a lot of time trying to locate the name of the meal from the vending machine (all in japanese characters and no accompanying picture), put money in, press the button with the correct name, collect the receipt, present that to the counter and take a seat, hoping that you didnt press the wrong button and ordered something creepy.




















this is cindy's cosy room.














rubbish collection point near to her place. you must comply fully with the rules or else the rubbish man will refuse to collect your trash and leave it there forever until you repent and rectify your mistake. the rules: monday is for non-flammables, tues for recyclable plastics, wed and sat for flammables. note that recyclable plastics is PET bottles minus the caps, as cindy had found out after her bag of bottles plus caps went uncollected for days.




after the home visit, we headed off to harajuku to ogle at the girls.


walk past this make-believe world, past a huge, old torii gate and you will come to the Meiji-jingu shrine, an oasis of green in the heart of the city.




after that, back to the make-believe world....

of bare legs in fishnet stockings on a cold winter night...





neon seal on concrete walkway...

















and crystal blue trees














end of the day, went to check out our hostel's Bar Twenty Three with lini. warning: do not ever go there unless you dig bad karaoke singing... we left after 1 drink.
















Next: Part II Tokyo Outskirts