Japan - Day 4

I awoke from a better night sleep then the previous night. Snorlax across from me was either quieter or I was just absolutely knackered. Bish and I had a day trip planned to Nikko to visit the Toshogu shrine, something not to be missed according to every Japanese tourism site, guide, poster and leaflet ever made. Before we made our journey here, priorities came first i.e breakfast. I had planned to eat something a bit healthier as I had basically lived on carbs for the last 4 days. Unfortunately we happened to walk past a chain in Tokyo called Mister Donut.. Donuts being my biggest weakness I couldn't resist! Bish didn't do a good job of talking me out of it as he was basically drooling over the window. We were greeted by large display of ring baked wonders, coated in chocolate, sugar and sprinkles. With so many to choose from it was hard to decide but one particular donut caught my attention... A savoury Katsu curry filled donut. Only in Japan! This to be sampled. I picked one up but also chose a chocolate one just to be on the safe side. Bish choose a croissant sugar coated donut that had half been dipped in chocolate. It turned out to be the best choice. Bish seemed to have a way if making the better food choices on this trip. I took my first bite of my Katsu inspired donut.. Not bad! A slight spicy kick and the creamy curry filling complimented the soft dough texture well! Would I order another? Probably not but it was worth the money. The chocolate donut was ok, not as sweet as I had expected but good enough. With our stomachs lined we headed off for the main exhibition of the day and our first chance to board the Shinkansen, the Japanese bullet trains! Bish and I had bought green car tickets which is the Japanese version of first class. For an extra 80 pounds for a two week pass this proved to be a brilliant decision. No peasant class for us! As the train pulled up it's concord shaped front sliced through the station like a knife through butter. We saw the standard class carriages through the windows as they rolled past us. Even these looked good with their inviting blue chairs complete with headrests and dinner tables. We thought to ourselves, if this is standard what just first class be like? Eventually our carriage labeled green came to a perfect stop in front of us (Japanese stations tell you where to stand for green) and we took out first steps inside.. Wow.. Gigantic seats, fully recline-able, dinner table, side tables and even a large extendable footrest..and the comfort of the chairs! I felt instantly relaxed and was the most comfortable I had been since we landed in Tokyo. I could sleep better here than in our hostel beds! Shortly an announcement came overhead informing us we would be on our way to Utsunomiya, the stop before we had to get off and change for the Nikko line.

The Nikko line wasn't much in terms of comfort, but it did offer a scenic view through a more rural japan, fields houses and small villages lined our track and we got a glimpse of real Japanese life outside Tokyo. We arrived in Nikko just after midday and realised it would be a 40 minute walk up a massive hill to get to the famous Toshogu shrine. Luckily the Japanese realised that the site would attract many lazy foreigners and ran a regular bus service for a mere 500 yen for an all day pass. We purchased and jumped on the next bus. Initially we got on the wrong bus and after some terrible Japanese from me we made it into the right one.

We rolled up to the entrance of the shrine and were welcomed by a glorious gravel pathway, lined with small Japanese buildings and trees decorated with lanterns. The trees also had messages that people had attached to their branches, presumably prayers, offerings or special messages to the shrine. We carried on up the path and eventually came to a gigantic wooden archway gate at the stop of some stone steps that towered above us. Behind it stood the many buildings for the shrine. The buildings themselves were decorated in an explosion of gold, red, green, silver and wood, with individual carvings of statues across them. Most impressive of all here was a 5 story pagoda. So many people were taking photos of this it was hard to get a good shot myself but it was worth the wait. We walked on and went into the main inner shrine. Shoes had to be taken off and respect had to be made to the temple by bowing twice, clapping your hands twice then making a final bow. Many people also chucked money into the shrine as offerings. We listened to two talks all in Japanese so it was hard to make out what was being said.. Fortunately Bish had purchased a headset that educated us about the shrine in English. One of the buildings I found most interesting was called the crying dragon.. Here there is a large painting of the dragon across the ceiling and if you strike wood directly underneath it, it makes a shimmering echo that can only be heard if the wood is struck underneath the dragons eyes and no where else. Hence the name crying dragon. We made our way out of the shrine as we felt our stomachs rumble as the effects of the katsu donut wore off. We headed out of the shrine and onto the bus for the nearest town in Nikko.. Here we found many shops selling Nikko's famous cheesecake.. free samples were a plenty.. The cake itself to me just tasted like sugar...Bish however loved it and bought some for a later snack. We walked around town looking for somewhere to eat. After 4 days of Japanese food we fancied something a little more western and stumbled across a qwerky cafe on the second floor of one of the buildings . The cafe was decorated in various leather chairs, vinyl music players, pianos and overlooked all of Nikko. Lounge jazz music was playing on the vinyl player and we ordered their famous sausage

and chili sandwich. I also had a rum caramel iced milk and Bish had a regular coffee.. I for once had made the better choice..the milk drink was sweet and velvety.. just what i needed! It was easy to sit and spend all day here but we had one last stop in Nikko to make, the Kegon Falls and Lake Chuzenji. This was a 49 minute bus journey away up the mountain, the bus swayed around corners with steel drops either side of the road.. Not the most relaxing journey in this respect! The journey was well worth the trip as the falls themselves were beautiful and we caught the sunset across the lake. Bish and I spent a while here taking many pictures before heading back down the mountain home to Tokyo.

We decided that dinner should be had in Ueno as it would be too late to go all the way home and it was already around 9pm when we got to Ueno.. We walked brought back alleys. Here tiny restaurants decorated in lanterns, oozing smoke and tasty aromas sold ramen, yakitori (grilled chicken sticks) noodle dishes and many more. We dived into a nearby Japanese tapas style restaurant, were greeted with "Irasshaimase!" were seated and brought two beers. A perfect way to end the day. Bish proceeded to once again order the best thing on the menu which was grilled steak that was so juicy and tender that we had to order another one and almost ordered a third. Alongside this we ate smokey BBQ'd pork and a variety of vegetable dishes too. After dinner was done we passed another stall selling sweet Japanese waffles in the shape of a fish filled with red bean paste. I had to try this. It was warm, sweet and comforting. I highly recommend them and it only cost 150 yen! Winner!

We decided to call it a night and headed back, braced for Snorlax round 3.. To our delight he had left! Finally a quiet nights sleep! Bliss! Goodnight.