Yesterday was a very long day. It started at 6:00am when I woke up and did my morning routine. While heading to the train station I ran into some classmates and we rode to school together. We arrived 25 minutes early for the day's activities and had to wait next to the bus for quite a while until our other classmates showed up. Once everyone gathered we were formed into small groups and boarded the bus for Nikko.
Nikko is a mountainous region about 2 hours outside Tokyo. We visited two separate places there. The first, Edomura, is a recreation of Edo era Edo (Tokyo was called Edo the era before the Meiji restoration, the Edo era). The second was the Toshogu shrine, the burial place of Tokugawa Ieyasu (the first Shogun of the Edo period.)
When we arrived at Edomura it was discovered that the actual name of Edomura was "Edo Wonderland". It proceeded to be about as hokey as it's name sounded. There were some nice recreated buildings, but most of them contained gift shops. There were also several theaters where you could see live shows about Edo era people. The ninja show was nicely choreographed. During the Geisha show one of the students from our school got pulled up on stage to play the role of the master of a house. The actors were using an old Japanese dialect so it was hard to follow along, but the acting was good enough to communicate what was going on. Mid day we had lunch in the cafeteria. The food provided was all Edo era cuisine. There was sugared diakon (big white radish), seaweed miso, cold tofu, and some other items which were tasty but that I couldn't recognize. After several hours in Edomura we boarded the bus for the half hour trip to Toshogu.
Being more a fan of real history as opposed to recreated history, I liked Toshogu better. It had more or less the basic shrine layout but was build on a mountainside. As the Japanese seem to love steps, there were plenty to be had. While there we saw the three famous parts of the shrine. First the three monkeys carving. You know, hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil? Yeah those monkeys. Next was "the sleeping cat" which is a rather small carving of... a sleeping cat. Third was the crying/roaring dragon. This is a dragon painted on the ceiling of a room where, if you stand in a certain spot and slap two pieced of wood together it reverberates and makes a sound like a dragon crying/roaring. Lastly we saw Tokugawa tomb. This was at the top of the mountain in a very beautiful location surrounded by trees.
Nikko is a mountainous region about 2 hours outside Tokyo. We visited two separate places there. The first, Edomura, is a recreation of Edo era Edo (Tokyo was called Edo the era before the Meiji restoration, the Edo era). The second was the Toshogu shrine, the burial place of Tokugawa Ieyasu (the first Shogun of the Edo period.)
When we arrived at Edomura it was discovered that the actual name of Edomura was "Edo Wonderland". It proceeded to be about as hokey as it's name sounded. There were some nice recreated buildings, but most of them contained gift shops. There were also several theaters where you could see live shows about Edo era people. The ninja show was nicely choreographed. During the Geisha show one of the students from our school got pulled up on stage to play the role of the master of a house. The actors were using an old Japanese dialect so it was hard to follow along, but the acting was good enough to communicate what was going on. Mid day we had lunch in the cafeteria. The food provided was all Edo era cuisine. There was sugared diakon (big white radish), seaweed miso, cold tofu, and some other items which were tasty but that I couldn't recognize. After several hours in Edomura we boarded the bus for the half hour trip to Toshogu.
Being more a fan of real history as opposed to recreated history, I liked Toshogu better. It had more or less the basic shrine layout but was build on a mountainside. As the Japanese seem to love steps, there were plenty to be had. While there we saw the three famous parts of the shrine. First the three monkeys carving. You know, hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil? Yeah those monkeys. Next was "the sleeping cat" which is a rather small carving of... a sleeping cat. Third was the crying/roaring dragon. This is a dragon painted on the ceiling of a room where, if you stand in a certain spot and slap two pieced of wood together it reverberates and makes a sound like a dragon crying/roaring. Lastly we saw Tokugawa tomb. This was at the top of the mountain in a very beautiful location surrounded by trees.
We all piled back in the bus and were taken back to the university. I rode the train to Shinjuku and got off to see if I could get something from one of the department stores. Not finding what I wanted I finished the trip home. Just as I sat down to write this entry my door buzzer rang. It was some of the people from NiDai wanting to go to the bar across the street. Long story short I didn't get to bed until 1:30 this morning. As I said, it was a long day.
Today is a planned day of rest for me. After all my runnings all over Japan this past week I need a break. Hopefully I will get around to replying to e-mails and comments later today. But first, maybe a nap.
Ja Mata Ne.
posted by Dockett at 11:00 AM
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