winter wonderland (nikko)
--Jan 21, 2005

part of Toshu-gu temple complex in Nikko

We took a break from the city and decided to go on a 2 day trip to Nikko, a town a few hours north of Tokyo very popular with Japanese tourists. We boarded the train early in the morning and quickly fell asleep. We awoke an hour and a half later surprised to see the beautiful countryside covered in snow! (Luckily mom and dad had insisted on buying us big jackets and other cold weather gear before we left Taiwan.) We knew it would be cold, but we didn’t expect snow.

	the nicest "no" in the world This is one of the conversations that tranpired between Susan (in pink) and the ticket agent (in black) in our quest to buy train tickets to Nikko: Susan: Do you speak English? Ticket Agent: Hai. Yes. (Hai means "Yes" in Japanese) Great. Is there an express train from this station to Nikko? Yes. Hai. [nodding, smiling] Can we buy a ticket here? Yes. [still nodding, smiling] Okay – we’d like to buy two tickets. [starts getting money out] [no answer – smiling] How much do they cost? [no answer – smiling] So… um… we can’t buy tickets here? Yes. Hai. So...there is NOT an express train from this station to Nikko, huh? Hai. [looks pleased that we “understand”] [Update: see reader comment below]

Nikko is famous for its beautiful shrines and temples and seeing them covered in snow lent them a fairytale-like quality. It snowed lightly the whole afternoon which made it more and more beautiful as we traipsed through temples and shrines, but made it more and more difficult to take off our shoes when we arrived at each entrance. The floors are unbelievably clean but get icy cold! We wondered how the temple keepers (dressed only in traditional robes) could keep from freezing.

We were rewarded at the end of the day with a soak in our inn’s onsen, or natural hot spring bath. In the burning-hot bath our chilled bodies quickly obtained the deliciously rubbery state the Japanese rightly call “boiled octopus.” (We stayed at the Turtle Inn, which we certainly recommend.)

After a short nap (induced by our hot bath), we braved the elements again and went in search of dinner. We found the most adorable little home-style restaurant. The owner was very friendly and urged us to put a new pin on his map showing where his customers visited from (there were a few others from San Francisco, but we stuck a new pin in anyway). He then took our jackets, set them by the heater, and made us a wonderful dinner. Afterwards, our tummies completely satisfied, we bowed our goodbyes, hurried home in the snow, took another hot bath, and then pretended we were Japanese by relaxing in our yukata robes on our tatami beds.