So the girls (Wendy, Judi, Laura) and I headed out to the city of Nikko this weekend for a one-nighter. Nikko is famous for their temples and shrines, all within walking distance of each other, and the beautiful hikes and lakes, waterfalls, and hot springs on the west side near Mt. Nantai.
We all met up at the station at 9:45am and took the 3.5 hour train(s) rides and got there at 1:30pm. Our hostel, The Nikko Daiyagawa Youth Hostel, was fairly close to the shrines and about a 20-minute walk from the station, so it wasn't that bad. It was a strange little place, off of a very small residential road and behind several houses, down some steps, and literally off the cliff to the Daiya river. It was cozy though, and the lady there was very helpful and nice.
We dropped off our stuff and headed out to see as many temples and shrines as possible because Wendy would only be with us until early tomorrow morning (she had to leave early for a concert). We bought a strip of tickets to see all 5 shrines and temples in the surrounding area and were able to squeeze in all 5 in just over 2 hours!
The first one we saw was the Rinnoji temple, where it houses 3 different dieties, all gods of mercy. They have a festival every year where people dance to pray for world peace and mercy. Then we headed over to the famous Toshogu Temple, which was super elaborate in every way! We saw the famous 5-story Buddhist pagoda in the front, the Gokuden (Sacred Palace), the Yomienon Gate of Sunlight and the Niomon front gate, as well as the very popular "3 Monkeys." That's where the saying: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil comes from!! Cool, huh? I never knew!
After that we headed out to see 3 more temples and shrines, one dedicated to the big old volcanic mountain there called Mt. Nantai. There was also the Taiyin mausoleum, the Futarasan shrine where they keep all the festival carriages and costumes, and another shrine called the Yakusido (Roaring Dragon) that had this huge painting of a dragon on the ceiling. Legend has it when you clap underneath him you can hear the dragon roar. One of the Buddhist monks there grabbed these two pieces of wood and clapped them together, it was painfully ear-piercing by the way, but the echo it left sounded a bit like a dragon's roar. It was pretty cool how they made the acoustics work like that!
We did the whole World Heritage tour (that's what they called the area) in about 2.5 hours, which I thought was pretty good! We headed back down and found a really great restaurant that Wendy's book recommended that also served the Nikko specialty: Yuba! Yuba is basically the skin off the top of soy milk, dried out and rolled up to be used for various things. It sounds pretty gross, but it actually wasn't that bad. I stuck with my yakisoba (delicious!) and gyoza, but I had a taste of Wendy's in her soup. We met some tourists from the states, Kentucky or some obscure place like that, they were nice but not all that friendly.
Afterwards we went back to our hostel, officially checked in and saw our 4-bunk bed room. Cute, quaint, and totally worth the 2700yen we spent!
At around 7:30pm we headed out to try to catch the next bus to the local onsen. The tourist office recommended the Yashio-no-Yu spa, but apparently not all the bus lines went there. So we jumped on the next bus, and about 5 stops in I asked the driver if we were going the right direction, to which he replied (in Japanese) NO. Oh crap! So he starts going off in Japansese about other buses and the train station and something-something 8:05 last bus last bus, so we just kinda pay our fare and get off.
We were literally off some big main road in the middle of no-where at night in the dark. Luckily across the street was a swanky hotel, so we j-ran over and asked the receptionist to call us a taxi. He was very nice (probably thought 'Poor gaijin') and the taxi got there within 5 minutes. And lucky us, it was only about 400yen/each AND he offered to pick us up afterwards! SWEET!
So now the onsen experience....
We arrive and have no idea what the heck we're doing. It's only 500yen, cool, so we put our shoes away in these little cubbies and kinda meander our way into the women's locker rooms. What's the first thing I see when I walk in? A Japanese woman leaving the onsen room completely naked and wet! I diverted my eyes, but it's hard not to notice naked women just walking, sitting, and chatting around. There was even a little girl no older than 12 or 13 naked walking around too!
It took us a bit to get into the swing of things, we didn't bring any towels cuz we assumed they would be provided but weren't, so we bought some towels and got a locker for our things. There are baskets offered where you can put your belongings, and we all were very discreet (think swim team) about undressing and wrapping ourselves in these tiny green towels.
Alright, so we enter the actual onsen. To the left is a large jacuzzi-like pool where naked women are sitting around. To the right is a row of low shower-like heads and women all squatting on plastic seats scrubbing and grooming ourselves. Please remember that we're the ONLY ones in towels, plus we didn't bring anything to wash ourselves with! (we didn't know!!!) So we kinda have to wait in line, ladies are looking at us, we're trying not to look at naked ladies, and I'm trying to figure out if I should lose the towel, or if I keep the towel how I'm going to carry it around without it getting sopping wet. We all joked before we left for Nikko that towels were for whoosies, and I still believed it. Still...
So the first shower-head was free, and I decided to be the brave one. There was no way i'd be able to take a shower squatting with a shower head and a towel, right? So I say "Fuck it. Sorry guys..." and just unwrap myself! It was ballsy but someone had to do it! Eventually all the girls uncovered themselves and we all washed and rinsed ourselves for a bit. Luckily there was some basic shampoo and body wash provided, so that helped.
We all hung out in the onsen for about an hour. There were 4 different rooms, 1 was the jacuzzi-pool inside, there was a dry sauna, another wet sauna, and an outdoor jacuzzi-pool. I did all of them except the wet sauna, but it was really nice! Very relaxing, the water felt amazing especially after an entire day of walking, and really, being naked wasn't that bad at all! It was interesting to see all the different types of bodies we women have. And they're all beautiful really, I think it just depends on what you prefer. And then if you really think about it, this is what we all really look like, just with some thin covering on top of us. It's funny how the covering becomes so important though, huh? When underneath we're all just naked bodies...
Anyway, the girls and I joked that we are now new official onsen best friends, cuz none of us have ever been this "exposed" to any of our other friends at home. I must give props to the girls, I ididn't know if they had it in them to strip down completely, but they did it! I think Judi and I were the most comfortable with ourselves, but then again we're both a bit older than the other two.
The onsen closed promptly at 9pm unfortunately... they started playing that damn "old lang zyne" song (that's the official closing time song for all japanese places) so we headed out and luckily our taxi guy was waiting there for us.
We got back to our hostel by around 10pm and piled all of our snacks/candy/goodies we brought from home (very Halloween candy-like) and talked story until about 11:30pm.
Sunday was a bit more chill. Wendy had to leave early cuz she had a concer to attend, so Laura, Judi and I headed out to see Lake Chuzenji. It took about 45 minutes just to get there, and it was hot!!! We walked around a bit and saw the Kegon waterfalls, very beautiful! We walked over to see the lake and attempted to walk to see the Ryuzu waterfalls but it was a lot farther than it looked on the map. So we headed back, had a delicious lunch of pork ramen and green tea ice cream for dessert, and headed back to Mito. We got back home by 5:30pm, Judi and I went grocery shopping, and I was pooped out!
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