Japan Trip Part 10

We left Minako's house at 6am to catch the train to Shinjuku, which is the busiest station in the world. From Shinjuku we hopped on a train to Nikko. It was a two hour ride, and most of us slept on it. I slept through the first half, but managed to stay awake for the rest to enjoy the scenery. Once we arrived the inn were staying at sent two vans to pick us up. We dropped off our bags since our rooms weren't ready, and we headed out to tour the shrines. Nikko is a relatively quite town, known for its hot springs and the location of the tomb of the Tokugawa shogun.

We walked from the inn to shrine. It was a huge area. The day we went, several schools were there for field trips. I walked a little slower and walked with a group of senior citizens with a tour guide. I did that for a while until I fell far enough behind. We had lunch at shop in the shrine. Most of our day was spent walking around. Sadly halfway through the trip, the battery died on my camera, and I left my charger back in Yokohama.We returned to the inn around 3-4pm. After getting our rooms, I relaxed for a bit, then headed up to the 6th floor to the hotspring bath. Seiji and the supporters were already up there soaking in the outdoor hot tub. There was a beautiful view and the cool mountain air left good in the hot bath. After the bath, the inn provided us with yukata. When I returned to the room, Austin was napping and Micah was gone, so I got bored and went for a walk around town. I felt awesome walking around in the yukata and vest. Only thing that would have been better is if I had a sword. It was very quiet, and none of the stores seemed to be open besides the conbini.

After returning from the walk it was time for dinner. It was a very fancy japanese dinner. It was much better looking than it tasted. I prefer okinawan cooking over japanese. After dinner, a group of us, all of us old enough to drink, went to the conbini for some liquor. It was like a miniature liquor store. They had a decent selection, though the majority was sake. We all went back to Seiji's room to hang out, drink, and look at some of the pictures that people took throughout the trip. I'm not sure about anybody else, but I got to the happy stage of drunk. After a couple hours we all went back to our rooms for bed.