Today, I woke up to Taijii. Having slept in late reading the new book from Rick Riordan, the last book of the Kane Chronicles (The Serpent’s Shadow) which saddened me, as it was amazing, I was still awake at 4.30am. At 10.30, I got up and went down for breakfast, watching the rain outside, as well as the anime on TV. After eating a large breakfast, which was amazing, I grabbed my stuff together, and went into the car with Taijii and his mom. Together, we went to the Nikko shrine area, which turns out contains 2 shrines (technically 3) and 2 temples in one large area. Arriving there, Taijii’s mom went out and got us a special pass before coming back, handing us the pass and telling us that she would be back at around 3pm. I was surprised as it was 11am, and didn’t think it would take 4 hours to visit the entire area. Man was I wrong.
Going to the main shrine, there were so many buildings it was amazing. Taking a ton of pictures I was disappointed when I went into one Shrine that you were not allowed to take pictures inside, as while the buildings looked amazing on the outside, the art work and carving work inside was truly a sight to be behold. The amount of hours that went into making, keeping and maintaining this place must be unbelievably high. Each shrine and temple we entered, we had to keep our umbrellas outside and take of our shoes. I had wished I wore better socks with fewer holes in them, and shoes that were easier to take off. Walking around, I took as many pictures as I could, bought some souvenirs, as I wanted to have something to remember this place and after we exhausted our view of one shrine, we climbed some stairs to go up a mountain to visit the sleeping cat shrine. Walking around, we saw many sacred sites and places to pray, which required me to put money in.
Today I lost a lot of money buying charms, praying and enjoying myself. After taking the long walk down from the sleeping cat shrine (which I understand why it was sleeping, climbing all those stairs I wanted to sleep myself), and we decided before heading to the temple, we would have a drink break. Buying two drinks for myself, we went inside the shop the vending machine was in front of and sat down. I discovered that the shop keeper was the grandmother of one of Taijii’s friends from primary/high school. While relaxing, I checked my 3DS to see if there were any hits, and plenty of people had 3DS. Thanking for her hospitality, we then headed out to look at the temple.
I forgot to mention, while we walked around, there were a lot of people there. As many people as there were, apparently the crowd what was there was not that much compared to normal. I guess it was good that we were there when it was raining. There were also many types of people, normal japanese people around my age, people in Kimonos, young school girls and boys and foreigners from all over the world. I was surprised to see so many different kind of people, but I guess this shrine site really is that famous.
Going into the temple, which was surrounded by a building as it was being restored, I was unable to take any pictures again because of the no picture inside the building rule. Inside there were amazing art works and large golden statues of Buddha which I think deserved a picture. Then we went up stairs, where we could see the outside of the shrine at different levels, still be restored. However, the better site was outside, as we were 7 floors up, the view of the Shrine area, mountains that surrounded it and the city of Nikko itself was amazing. Taking pictures of the outside (as I assumed we were allowed to as it wasn’t the inside), I got some amazing shots of the entire area. Coming back down 7 floors of stairs was tiring, and we though we would take a little break before heading to the final shrine area. Going inside the museum that had the sacred relics that the temple was supposed to hold but couldn’t, we got to see more amazing artwork that included tapestry and scrolls of scripts. I was amazed by some of these scrolls, as most of them were written in machine perfect Kanji and some were written so small it was crazy to think that someone did it with a brush in the days before ball points. Leaving the building, we got to look at a traditional asian backyard, which was beautiful, with its own bridges, pathways and pond, equip with waterfall. All I knew is I wanted one of those.
After our short break, we took the long pathway to the final area that contain a shrine and a temple. Entering the shrine first, I got to ring a dong, make a wish and then exit rather quickly to be honest. Looking around there were a lot of charms for sale, including love charms as apparently the area was famous for its love wood. There was also a place where you could get two Miko’s to pray for you, but it would cost 5000 Yen (a bit over $50 AUD), so I didn’t do that. I also didn’t buy a charm as I had a non-existent love life, so there was no reason to get one.
After leaving the area, I noticed I was starting to run low on batteries in my camera. I didn’t bring the charger, so I was getting a little worried on battery time. I was also running low on room on my SD card as I had been taking tonnes of pictures. Trying to be a little more careful with my picture-taking, I then walked with Taijii to the last Temple. There we got to drink some water, climb up 3 sets of stairs to get shown sacred golden arrows you could buy for 3000 Yen (a bit over $30 AUD). Leaving the area, which seamed to be designed against people like me entering (the entrance ways had steps you had to go over as well as a low roof, meaning every time I tried to step over something, I risked hitting my head), we went down stairs and headed to the place where Taijii’s mom would pick us up.
On the way there, Taijii talked about wanting to go to a Hot Spring. I totally agreed, and he said we should do it. Once we reached the meeting point, apparently we were in the wrong place, as Taijii’s mom was mad, so we walked the opposite direction all the way back to the final shrine area where Taijii’s mom was waiting with Taijii’s older brother. Entering the car, she had bought us lunch and a change of clothes, so that we could go directly to the hot springs. Surprised but happy, I ate a little as I was too excited to be hungry and amazed at the large river we crossed. Entering the hot springs with Taijii and his brother, we put our shoes away, then went into the changing area and put our clothes away. The Hot Spring was way more modern and nothing like I imagined. It was an artificial one, so I was a little disappointed and told Taijii I kind of expected it to be a natural one. He told me we could do that tomorrow, before finding out there was a natural hot spring, and it was outside. Cleaning ourselves first, I dismissed the artificial one as it was just a bath, and went outside, where it was still raining and took a dip in the Natural Hotspring. The water made my skin feel super smooth and it was amazing the feeling of cold air and rain while you are in a hot spring. Deciding we should also try the spa, I went inside and tried the spa for a little. It felt weird to say the least. Taijii wanted to try the Sauna, and since I was here, I gave it a go.
Sitting in a room with 10 guys naked was weird to say the least, and not really as fun as I thought it would be (which wasn’t much). Leaving the Sauna after 3 minutes, we finished off in the Natural Hotspring again, before leaving the shower area, and getting dressed. Buying a drink, we had a nice soda and left change rooms, only to be faced with the vending machine I wanted to buy from, the Hot Milk and Hot Coffee Vending machine I had seen in animes previously. Buying a drink, Taijii and me drank down in one gulp the milk and coffee we got, looking exactly as they did in the animes. Grabbing our shoes, Taijii’s brother apparently didn’t take the key to his locker so he didn’t know where he put his shoes. After a minor search, we found his shoes and went outside to enter the car Taijii’s mom was waiting in.
Heading home, we put our clothes in the wash and I put away my stuff and started to copy my files from my SD Card to a USB drive on my tablet as I didn’t bring my SD Card reader. As we were leaving for dinner, and I wasn’t done, I brought my tablet with me to let it copy and my 3DS on the request of Taijii. Yesterday Taijii was up pretty late playing Mario Kart on my 3DS which he seamed to really enjoy and is now unlocking things for me (Thank you!). While in the car, I continued to copy the files until finish and put away my tablet and USB Drive. It was then I found out we would pick up Taijii’s grandmother and grandfather. As they entered the car, Taijii introduced me basically as Gerhard, and they said their names as I thanked them and said it was nice to meet them. With short intros over, we went to a dinner place, which may have been the Japanese equivalent of a steak house. In there, they served chicken, hamburger steak and normal steak. Not sure what to get, I got the plate that had a bit of all 3. While Taijii played 3DS, I enjoyed the unlimited drink bar, and my 3 different meats as well as salad, I then had a nice ice cream sundae for dessert. Leaving the restaurant, we got back home, where in basic, Taijii dropped on the bed, and fell asleep before being awoken by his mom to hang the clothes. I put my USB drive on to my laptop, connected to the net and started uploading my pictures. Going into my room, where Taijii was back to bed, I continued reading the book till finish, happy and sad by the ending, and then checked on my upload as I started this post.
The Legend of Gerhard: Japan Trip 
The shrine sounds amazing, I would love to see what the sleeping cat shrine is like! And I would love to buy the charms there too! Ack!
And the garden sounds beautiful, I would love to have one here, but I think it would be too hot int he summer for it to be maintained properly.
The hot spring sounds like fun, and I am so jealous! A natural hot spring! although, didn’t it smell a little sulfuric? And lol about the sauna ^_^
Sounds like you had an awesome day, I’m glad your golden week is going well :D Ah, its always sad when a series or trilogy or etc is ending, you always wish it can continue, but then, if it ends well, then that’s the best you can hope for – since the alternative is that it drags on for too long and end with a lame note!
Not sure about the smell, it didn’t really smell for me, but it was an outside hotspring.
The garden is nice, I know it is crazy hard to maintain, but I still want one.
I guess that is true about a novel series, when the author doesn’t want to continue he should be forced to, but after Percy Jackson ended, this was the new series, and that was 5 books, so I expected at least 5 books from the new series. There is still Heroes of Olympus which is the sequel to Percy Jackson, so I hope he doesn’t end that one too.
I’m sure that if it’s really popular he’ll still write books in the same theme ^_^
I guess it depends on the reason he stopped writing books in that area. It may be possible he no longer wants to write, which would be sad. If he does still want to write, and he writes other books on similar themes, bring it on!