Asia

We woke up early and took the subway to catch the express train to Nikko. Over 100 kms to the north of Tokyo. We were met with rain that day. Lucky Rusty and Andrew had rain jackets and Ernie was wearing his trusty 100% cotton t-shirt to repel the water. Once getting outside Tokyo the landscapes opened up to lush green cloaked hills, with rice paddies stretching about in any flat and open space. Nikko is like the Aspen of Japan. It is were you want to get away to reconnect with nature after the fluorescent, concrete, high rise, cityscape of downtown Tokyo. There is a National Park offering many levels of hiking across steep temperate rainforest terrain. Nikko is known for its hot springs and the monkeys who come in the wintertime seeking refuge from the cold by swimming and huddling about these springs.

This time of year is off season and it was pretty dead. It rained hard. Luckily, for 500 yen Ernie bought an umbrella, while Rusty and Andrew's trusty rain jackets did their trick. A walk to Kegon Falls to take an elevator which descends 100 meters through the bedrock to a perch overlooking the falls was spectacular, as clouds of mist drifted in and out. Sometimes you saw the falls: sometimes you did not. But the roar was constantly deafening.

We had lunch a restaurant overlooking the deep lake of Nikko. Rusty and Andrew had Japanese spaghetti (we thought that would be the safe bet), while Ernie had a Japanese lunch box consisting of all kinds of dead and dried seafood.

After lunch we found one of the few mineral baths that was open. This time of year many shut down, but Nikko is dotted with hot springs and if you had a week in Japan this is where I'd spend it. So three naked white dudes sat in the mineral baths pretending like they knew what they were supposed to do in there; with the uncomfortable silences as dudes normally don't like to be naked with other dudes. Finally a local guy walked in and we observed the ritual of sitting on a plastic bucket and washing yourself before getting in the mineral springs (which we didn't do). The water was hot. Damn hot. We lasted about an hour before calling it quits. It was a very neat experience as the spa was in a traditional Japanese style with great woodwork and high beams.

We then walked through a World Heritage listed reserve where many famous temples were built in the 1600s. There were ornate pagodas embalmed within forests of towering trees similar to the great Sequoias of northern California.

It was a great day. A little wet and rushed, but we did the best we could with the short time we had. Remember the name Nikko. If you ever make it to Japan, it is a must stopover. So plan to have some days up your sleeves.

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