Mia-tachi no tabi- Day 5 - Onsen Journey

Today we journeyed to Nikko. Nikko is a little town in the mountains north of Tokyo. It is famous for two things: the shrine that houses the ashes of Tokagawa Ieyasu, and the large amount of onsen (hot spring) in the area. We started with the shrine.

Today must have been field trip day for elementary school kids, since the shrine was filled with groups of them. I got interviewed by one which was fun, but we failed to snap a picture so I was a little sad.

In order to view Tokugawa's ashes, we had to go through the famous sleeping cat gate and climb a million stairs. Actually, we didn't know what we were climbing for until we reached the top and checked our map. Here it is:

It seems like a very peaceful final resting spot.

The most famous gate at the shrine, the yoemon-or-something-like-that, was under construction, which is too bad, since it was probable really cool

We saw a bunch priests and priestesses in the traditional garb, which made me happy. I was even able to snap pictures of a few:

I don't know what the differences in the outfits mean. I really which I had been able to get a picture of a miko (priestess), but they were only operating the omamori (protective charms) stands, so it wouldn't have been a good picture.

After the shrine we hunted for food and snared a ramen shop. It was tastey, but there was so much food, no one managed to finish.

After lunch, we headed for the onsen town (need to look up the name, it was kind of long). We accidentally got off a stop early, which I ended up enjoying, since we chose to walk to the next station instead of waiting for the next train. It was a nice area to walk through and I wish we had had a bit more time to explore the crematories and shrines we passed. But we had to catch a train back to Tokyo at 5:27, so we were slightly rushed.

We reached the onsen town and got directions to the closest onsen

Where I didn't actually take any pictures of the bath, for rather obvious reasons. It was gender split, so my mom and I parted from Rich and entered the women's bath. It had a nice indoor pool, which we enjoyed for a while until we discovered the outdoor pools, which were much more awesome. 

After bathing, we returned to the station with plenty of time to spare. As we approached the station, I noticed something awesome:

It was a foot onsen. The air was a little cold, so when Rich and I went out in search of a drink for him (my mom waited at the station), we stopped at the foot bath on the way back and soaked.

It felt so good!

The trip back was much longer than the journey over, partly because we were all tired. Rich seemed especially drained. I asked for a smile and I got this:

His expression could be related to his terrifying encounter with the giant wasp or the experience of listening to the screaming agony of the souls killed by this train trapped in the air vents.

It was a good day!