You might be surprised one day by a Japanese person asking you if you have four seasons in your country and being surprised if you answer positively.
Japanese people, I found are very particular about their season :
-winter is the time for Chrismas lights
-spring is the time for picnics under the cherry blossoms
-summer is the time for festival
-and autumn is the time to go in the parks and mountainous area to see the leaves turn red, orange and yellow.
As an auto-proclaimed semi-outdoor-ish person, it gives me excuses to meet people and hang out elsewhere than at an izakaya or a restaurant. The change is welcomed.
The plan changed a lot but I ended up doing a day trip to Nikko with one of my friend qround the end of October. I first wanted to spend the night but due to a three day weekend(my company doesn't close on national holidays so I had no idea...), all of the hotel within my budget range were full.
There was a lot of chaos in the morning and I ended up arriving 1 hour and a half late in Nikko. Always check beforehand if you can ride the train with an IC card or if you need a ticket, not 10 minutes before departing, otherwise, chaos ensues, and it is your fault (mine, in that instance).
It was supposed to be quite a nice day and the weather was sunny up to the train station 5 minutes away from Nikko, and as the train approched a menacing grey cloud was coming up too.
I met with my friend upon arriving and because of the sheer amount of people, we decided to do everything by foot and skipped some of the main tourist attractions.
We first headed for the Shinkyo bridge. Better looking from a distance than when standing on it. At that time, my friend phone's battery died and it's starting raining!
Then we walked to the Rinno-ji shrine, which hold three 8 meters golden buddhas. It was in renovation but it is still visitable, you even have some rooms dedicated to explain the renovation work.
Then we headed to a soba restaurant before heading the close-by mountains. It was absolutely pouring during our meal but we got lucky and it had calmed down by the time we came out of the restaurant (it was still raining though..).
Then we walked to the Rinno-ji shrine, which hold three 8 meters golden buddhas. It was in renovation but it is still visitable, you even have some rooms dedicated to explain the renovation work.
Then we headed to a soba restaurant before heading the close-by mountains. It was absolutely pouring during our meal but we got lucky and it had calmed down by the time we came out of the restaurant (it was still raining though..).
After that, we went to the Takinoo Shrine it is a bit away from the main attractions path and you have to walk through a mountainous area to get there. An interesting point is that It is said that if any person through a stone toward a small hole on the torii three times and the stone goes through the hole even once, he or she would meet something lucky. None of us suceeded.The other (very) few people there neither.
The last place we went to is the most popular shrine of the area,the Toshogu shrine. I almost got discouraged at the queue at the entrance (the entrance is not free) But it went way faster that I expected ! However, as it was the kouyou (autumn color observation)'s peak, it was a bit crowded.
Then, we headed to my friend's friends' house.
Commentaires
Enregistrer un commentaire