My last post was from Hiroshima...since then I have rocked back up the country to Tokyo, stopping in Takayama, and Nikko on the way, which meant a whole lotta train rides. All good fun though. Tomorrow I am planning on getting full use of my JR Rail Pass by taking the shinkansen to Nagoya in the morning and back in the evening, all to watch a day of sumo wrestling. Should be a good 2 hours each way.
No pictures in this post as I am too lazy to sort & post them at the moment, apologies.
Takayama is this funny, relaxed little town up in the mountains. I stayed there for two nights. Hit up a couple local bars, saw the old private homes and sake breweries, and this bizzare World Shrine of some new-age religion. Maybe a Japanese scientology? But they give you a free saucer of sake if you go and visit! They also had a Teddy Bear Eco-village in Takayama, featuring Smokey the Bear....you explain.
Next from Takayama, was Nikko. At this stage, I think I am searching for more in Japan than just temples, shrines and castles. They are all beautiful ^ historic, but i know I am missing something in the
country by only seeing them. When I finally arrived at my hostel in Nikko, after a good hike uphill, I saw some signs for an ice skating rink. So of course I had to check it out. They may have public skating from 10-3.30, unfortunately I was temple/shrine-seeing during that time, and didn't get to go back. But at 5pm, there was an old-timers league playing...not great skating, but a great feeling to be back in an arena!!
No pictures in this post as I am too lazy to sort & post them at the moment, apologies.
Takayama is this funny, relaxed little town up in the mountains. I stayed there for two nights. Hit up a couple local bars, saw the old private homes and sake breweries, and this bizzare World Shrine of some new-age religion. Maybe a Japanese scientology? But they give you a free saucer of sake if you go and visit! They also had a Teddy Bear Eco-village in Takayama, featuring Smokey the Bear....you explain.
Next from Takayama, was Nikko. At this stage, I think I am searching for more in Japan than just temples, shrines and castles. They are all beautiful ^ historic, but i know I am missing something in the
country by only seeing them. When I finally arrived at my hostel in Nikko, after a good hike uphill, I saw some signs for an ice skating rink. So of course I had to check it out. They may have public skating from 10-3.30, unfortunately I was temple/shrine-seeing during that time, and didn't get to go back. But at 5pm, there was an old-timers league playing...not great skating, but a great feeling to be back in an arena!!
Now I am back in Tokyo, saw a bit og Harajuku? today, but I think I missed most of the kids dressing up, sadly. I am sure I have a seen a few bizarre things today that I wanted to tell you about, but my mind is a bit frosty at the moment. Perhaps a bath will get me in shape.
Will give a full play-by-play of the sumo tomorrow :D!!!
Added:
Off to Oz in a couple days.
2 comments:
Well you're definitely getting the 'planes & trains' portion of 'Planes, trains & automobiles'-the movie!!! Thankfully, they're high speed so you can cover more territory in the shortest time. The two weeks in Japan is flying by so quickly! We're enjoying your stories.
me too!
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