Past and Present Unite!

And so the day in Nikko begins! I awoke this morning to the sound of intense snoring, which I assume is going to happen a lot. Anyways, I got prepared and left right away for Ueno station. I stopped to get some breakfast at one of the insanely many kissaten. if there is one thing I love about japan, it's their abundance of coffee. Even the vendig machines sell many differet kinds. The funny thing is that hot coffee in japan is called American coffee. So at ueno station, I got my reserved ticket for nikko, and made a quick train switch. Now I'm currently sitting o the nikko train, waiting to get to the last stop which is my destination. I'm extremely hungry and am probably going to get food once I get there.

Wow, what a busy day! Nikko was very exciting, and was definitely the higlight of my trip so far. I guess that's not saying much though considering I've only been here for three days, but whatever. To start off, nikko is an amazing little town 2 hours out of Tokyo. I would recommend everyone to come here. Nikko is one of those quaint places that's just great. The food is good, they have their own microbrew that is just great, and at the temple there is deliouw and sweet shaved ice. Oneof the stranger things I had was a sweet, fermented rice drink that tasted like red bean Mochi mixed with sake. The texture was similar to oatmeal, but mushier. The worst part of it was walking up 300 stairs after drinking it, and wanting to barf right away, but that was more of the alcohol than anything. What I'm trying to say is that you should try it, it's good. Going to the shrine was an invigorating experience to say the least, and I'm definitely going to sleep well tonight. My mind was blown away when i walked into the main entrance for the Tokugawa ieasu shrine. The inlays of the shrine are beautifully carved with images of dragons, Kirin, cranes, and other animals. The design repeated except for one section. The entrance for ieasu's tomb had a sleeping cat above it. Among all of the inlays, almost everything was covered in gold leaf. I don't think I've ever seen such a guilded structure as this one. So after staring at the edifice in wonder, I took another set of 300 or so upward winding stairs to the tomb of Tokugawa Ieasu. I couldn't have been more awe struck than when I stood in front of the tomb. You just can't help but deeply respect a man who essentially united a country that is still united today. He is one of the reasons japan has this sense of national pride. I got the chills just looking at it. after that, I had a delicious bowl of hot udon with egg, along with that drink I talked about earlier. After eating what was essentially my first full meal of the day, I visited the rest of the complex, which was made up of minor shrines and treasure museums that surrounded ieasu's shrine and tomb. The whole visit to nikko was a little more than six hours, and has definitely left a strong impression on me. I am very glad that my train ride back to Tokyo is going to be a while, bccause I am pooped.

So me beig the idiot that I am, I missed the Shinkansen that I was supposed to taked and had to wait anther half hour. The good part of missig the train was that I had time to stop at a kiosk and gab some onigiri for the trip, along with a large Kirin golden moment beer (has 5% alcohol). Now, at first I was self conscious about drinking a beer on the train, but I soon found out that it was completely normal. I would say almost every businessman sitting within the vicinity of me was sipping on a cold one. I mean, the d guy next to me was having two! I guess it's deserving to have one after a hard days work. I think I deserved one as well after walking all that time at ieyasu's grave. Another great thing about japan is that there is no law against drinking beer in public areas. I know everybody wishes it was like that in America, but I guess we are too irresponsible to allow that to happen. That Nikko black beer I was drinking earlier (the micobrewed one) was being sipped on as I walked to the Nikko train station. And now to change the subject, it's starting to get kinda cloudy outside. I hope that means that there is going to be a flash thunderstorm, because god knows I love what most consider to be shtty weather. Fuck the sun....give me rain every day and I'd be completely satisfied. Well, I'm almost at ueno station, and then I think I'm going to go to Tokyo station and grab something exquisite to eat. I think afer a hard days walk I deserve some fish. it's the one amazing thing in japan that I have yet to have. Oh, one thing I forgot to mention in yesterday's chronicle. There were some Japanese schoolgirls, prbably 18 or 19 from what I could tell, that were staring and giggling at me. They did that thing where they looked at me and then gave each other the "yeah, he's cute" look, but I still wasn't sure. I am in a completely different country, so that could mean something else. Anyways, I pretended not to notice and we all boarded the the train. I could have reaponded to them, but I don't know how to hit on girls in Japanese. Once again, I am in a different country, and I'm pretty sure they did not speak a bit of English. Whatever. Today was a great new day, and there's more to come with dinner.

And how amazing dinner is. The woman who works at the hostel has been recommending places to eat for me for the whole time I've been here, anxctonight is probably the night that she has given me the greatest suggestion ever. It took her a while to think of a place, until she finally asked me "do you drink alcohol?" (she asked in Japanese) I of course answered yes, and she directed me to this small little bar on the second floor of a no name building. It took me a bit to find, but i finLly spotted it. I walked up the stairs and pressed the button to open the door, and suddenly, I found myself immersed in a world of low ceilings and drunk, talkative salarymen. The waitress guided me to a bar seat, and asked me what i wanted to drink. I simply asked for a beer, and right behind the counter, a man started pouring one into a rather large frosted mug. I then proceeded to order, deciding on a steak dish and some tuna sashimi. The food was excellent, and so was the atmosphere. I couldn't of had a better time. It was an experience I will not forget any time soon. But now it's time to sleep, and rest for the day to come.