From Mister Donut, it was a short walk to the station. (ANOTHER bonus of staying with friends is that if your friends are centrally-located and really kind, generous, wonderful people, they will let you leave your big suitcase with them while you take side trips with only your carry-on. You should definitely bring them omiyage.) The train ride to Nikko from Tokyo is pretty long, about 2 hours north. Mc and I had been traveling around Japan for almost a week and were feeling pretty confident about our train skills. Till one particularly long stop. Mc looked out the open train doors and noticed that the sign said that the train was ending at a station before Tobu-Nikko (our goal station), which was concerning. We were sure that we had gotten on the correct train, ending in Tobu-Nikko. We grabbed our bags and hopped off the train, looked around in a puzzled-fashion, and then I stopped a train worker and asked if the train was going to Tobu-Nikko (the awesome thing about Japanese is that you can turn anything into a question by adding "desuka" to the end of it, so I just said, "Tobu-Nikko desuka?" while pointing at the train and looking confused, which worked just fine) and he said no and gestured with a pushing-type motion, then hurried off. Relieved that we caught our mistake, we tried to figure out when the next train was coming and wandered in the direction he had waved us. We started to sit down on a bench to wait when the train guy came back around, noticed us, and told us to get on the train that was still there. Confused, we apologized for not understanding his gesture, jumped up and got on the train. The best we can figure was that at this station, the train we were on split in 2 and went different directions. So while we did get on the correct train for Tobu-Nikko, we did not get on the right section of the train. The moral of this story is NEVER let yourself feel confident in your train skills, because that's when the train will get you!
Anyway, we did eventually get to Nikko station and for those of you wanting to visit, you should know that the train station is really small, it doesn't even have a full conbini inside (I know, unfathomable)! It does have an information office and I always recommend taking advantage of them, even if it's just to walk up and ask if they have any information/handouts in English. (You will use them later.) However, please note that they only have English-speakers at the information desk during certain hours (when we were there it was until 4pm), so don't think you can just go there any time.
Mc had done some research and booked us a room at a minshuku (guesthouse, kind of like a bed and breakfast) called Rindou no Ie. Once we booked it online, we received an email from Shizuo thanking us for choosing his guesthouse and telling us that once we arrive to please call him and he would pick us up (Note: if you'll recall, we rented a phone at the airport and I highly recommend it as it was infinitely useful to have for situations like this one. However, there are still pay phones all over Japan - just look for the green handset), which we did and he arrived within 10 minutes. Because we were early, our room wasn't ready. He offered to take our luggage on ahead, encouraged us to go sightseeing, and call him when we were done, even though we offered to walk (it's about a 15 min. walk, just over a kilometer, but we were grateful for the offer of a ride since it was raining).
*SuperNova Travel Tip: Book your lodging before you leave. I know that some travelers prefer the freedom of just showing up in a place and seeing what happens (because life is for the living!), but those people have to be prepared for/ok with sharing a bedroom with 2 random dudes in what you were told was a hostel, but may, in fact, be a squatter community. I have done it both ways (that was not a random example) and I personally find the benefits of planning far outweigh any benefits of winging it. 1. You know the costs in advance and have factored them into your budget, 2. you don't have to spend valuable vacation time in a dark internet cafe frantically researching reviews on TripAdvisor, 3. when you book in advance, the good and affordable hostels/guesthouses/hotels are still available so you don't have to settle for a place that has a roach you were sure was a mouse at first glance. If planning makes you feel restricted and panicky, remember that reservations are just reservations, and as long as you note their cancellation policy, you can change your mind at any time. But it's much easier to cancel a reservation than spend forever trying to make one.
This was really the first time that the rainy season was rearing its dampish head. I was worried about Mc because it was cooler on the mountain than in Tokyo and rainy, but Mc claimed it was still too hot for his raincoat. We solved this problem by picking up a small umbrella for 350¥, figuring that it was small enough to take home and we could always use another umbrella. (The umbrella is currently sitting long-forgotten in S's umbrella stand.) Then we hopped on the bus (the stop is right outside the train station and your Suica works on the bus) for some shrine viewing.
There are several shrines and temples in the Nikko area, but I specifically wanted to take Mc to see Nikko Toshogu Shrine. When I lived in Japan, Toshogu Shrine was the first experience I had where I went to a place that looked exactly like the slides from my Asian Art History class. The bus ride is relatively short and admission is 1,300¥ to see all 3 treasures (which you should). Your ticket will come with 3 stubs, so you'll know you're about to see one of the highlights when a temple-bouncer rips off part of your ticket. I do a lot of writing, but attempting to describe Toshogu Shrine will come off as an attempt to use all the thesaurus has to offer for alternatives to "awesome" or "amazing." So I will stick to things you should know and experiences we had and you'll just have to go visit for the visual part.
Things of note: The shrine is huge. It is worth the admission as there is a lot to see and you will spend some time there. There are a lot of dragons incorporated into the decor. There are some presentations; they are not in English. However, if you pay attention to body language and just relax and look around, you'll get the gist and none of the presentations are very long but they are all worth doing. One of the first things you see when you walk in is a carving of the 3 monkeys (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil) and it is awesome to see where that originated. It will be packed. We were there on a Thursday and it was rainy and it was still full of people.
Many of those people were school groups, since school was not out yet in Japan. If you are obviously foreign, you may become the target of one of these school groups. It is not uncommon for teachers to assign their students an English dialogue when they know they are taking their students somewhere English speakers frequent. We were surrounded by just such a group, each student nervously clutching their A4 worksheet with their carefully printed script, never making eye contact, as they ask you what your favorite color is. If you are the subject of one of these interviews, keep your answers short and predictable. (If you vary from the script, they will not know what to do and will panic. These kids are adorable and you don't want to scare them away.) After Mc and I answered the same questions fifteen times ("Where are you from? Do you like Japanese food? . . ."), we were able to continue our sightseeing. I'm glad Mc got to experience this; it's really fun, very cute, and it totally makes you feel like a rock star. Later, wandering through the grounds we would inevitably see the group of students again. No longer encumbered by their terrifying speech, the brave ones shouted, "HARO!" and once you respond, "Hello!" you are caught in an infinite loop of saying hello to every student as many times as they can get you to say it before their group walks too far away. I honestly do not think that they are making fun, I think that they are super excited to try out a word that they've been required to learn but never get to use and then lose it when they find that it actually works. While I was in the bathroom, some super brave students approached Mc and asked if he would take a picture. He thought they meant take it for them, but soon found out they meant with him in it. Once he agreed, he was a celebrity for the next 10 min. as student after student needed a picture with him. I love Japanese students.
*SuperNova Travel Tip: Don't let the weather keep you inside. It was rainy (I purposely won't say it was "raining" because I am from Oregon and we have more words for rain than Eskimos have for snow and it wasn't raining, just drizzly) and we got wet, but it wasn't cold and we had an amazing time and the weather actually made for some great pictures - the low clouds and mist giving the beautiful shrine an ancient ambiance.
After a few hours, we were damp and tired from traveling and headed back to the station, where we met Shizuo. Our room at the minshuku was wonderful. It was a traditional tatami room with sliding doors. Green tea was already set out for us on the low table in the middle of the room. We had our own air conditioner and the wifi password was framed on the TV stand. We sat on our knees on zabuton (Japanese floor cushions) and drank hot green tea out of tea cups with no handles. After we felt settled, we went downstairs to ask if Shizuo would recommend a restaurant for dinner. Not only did he haul out the map and draw on several locations, but once we picked one, he insisted on driving us.
The izakaya he recommended was delicious. (I had the name of it written down, but alas, we kept the wrong map.) They had an English menu (meaning they had a regular menu on which they had printed and taped tiny English translations - you see this a lot) and we saw an opportunity to try deep-fried ray. It came in strips and was awesome. It had an almost sweet taste and was just a little bit chewy. Everything we had there was good.
Once back at the minshuku, we pushed back the tea table, unfolded our large, cushy futons, donned our yukata-style robes, and kicked back. After a little while, I decided to take a bath before the evening rush. The bath was downstairs and was huge and I had it all to myself. After showering at one of the 2 shower stations, I went over to the massive bathtub and pulled back the cover. It was filled to the top and had bath salts mixed in that turned the water an opaque milky white. It was relaxing and wonderful smelling. As I pulled back the next section of bath cover, an image of a body floating to the top of the water FREAKED ME OUT and then there was no way I was getting in. But since I am a rational person (obviously), I figured I just needed to sweep the bottom of the tub. The only thing I could find was the little bucket they provide so you can rinse yourself, so there I was, dredging the bottom of a perfectly lovely bathtub for bodies. I didn't find any (surprise), so logically as I got into the bath and sank in up to my shoulders, my mind changed the image to that of a pale white hand shooting up out of the water and pulling me under. The setting was perfect - way out in the mountains, downstairs away from my husband, we don't speak Japanese so of course we would not have heard the rumors of how people keep disappearing or the story of the girl who drowned while working in a minshuku . . . I could basically write the horror movie in my head, and I needed to STOP because I needed to take a bath like a reasonable adult. So I sang. I sang every song I could think of while forcing myself to enjoy the heat of the water, and of course it worked. It is fun to sing in a huge bath room like that, the acoustics are excellent and if anyone could hear me, no one beat on the walls. The water made my skin feel soft and SOMETHING TOUCHED MY FOOT!!! After I restarted my heart, I discovered it was the pull string for the bath plug and this is why is a curse to have an active imagination, not a blessing. Bath over.
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