Nikko (Really Itaga)

My vacation was awesome! One of the places I went was Itaga, which is quite close to Nikko in Tochigi Prefecture. One of my friends has a hostel he recently opened so I went up for a lovely weekend.

The trains to get to Nikko from Tokyo suck. A lot. At least the one I took was no good. It took the JR Utsunomiya and JR Nikko lines. I guess if you take the Tobu lines it's better but I was able to cheat the trains without any trouble and the whole fare was a staggering 290 yen (as compared to the cheapest fare, 4420). I don't normally recommend cheating the trains but in this case it took me about six hours to do a 2.5 hour (including travel to/from the stations) trip. There were heavy rains due to a typhoon that hi Okinawa and spiraled some rains our way. The trains were crowded, late and generally miserable. It sucked. On the plus side, because of this I didn't feel bad cheating on my train fare. My already light pocketbook (from moving) thanked me.

In any case it was beautiful up there. In my mind it was a lot like Michigan all over again. Lots of pretty scenery and lots of mosquitoes! I got no fewer than 30 bites over the few days I was there. It was worth it though. Check out the view from my bedroom window!

There was a nice little river nearby as well that we went swimming in. The river was quite chilly however, so we also took time to follow a rivulet up the side of the mountain. Mountain climbing in your swimsuit is awesome, haha. My camera isn't waterproof so I didn't take it with me. Sorry.

Most of the time we just lounged and did nothing, which was good for a lazy vacation outside of Tokyo. It rained on the first day but it was mostly just a mist so it didn't prevent us from having a nice lunch at an amazing little shop next door. In retrospect I wish I'd tried the udon but the soba was also awesome (and also handmade). No idea what the broth was but it was tasty. Some mushroom, beef something. No idea. We also had some sort of grilled fish that we liked so much we had seconds. And in all it was very reasonably priced (don't say cheap in Japan; it has negative connotations).

The day after we had our lovely excursion into the wild (swimming and climbing) another typhoon must've rolled in because we had some crazy rains. The runoff from the mountains caused the river to swell so much it almost flooded over the barrier wall that kept it out of the hostel. The clear, cool crisp river became a raging, murky brown torrent that ate all the trees and most things besides. The rain also caused the trains to stop and put my return trip on indefinite hold. Although they did resume a bit later I waited a while to let the congestion clear up some. Once I was on my way it only took three hours to get home. Another example of the JR sucking again.

All told the trip was great but I'd recommend taking the Tobu Nikko line instead if you value your time. Also, if you're looking for a nice hostel during peak times that's got reasonable prices, check out the Zen Hostel. But don't go if you don't like dogs; they have two pugs named Kowboy and Dune.

First time being Goth Loli in Harajuku.

Cicada Power

Holy crap the cicadas are loud in Japan!

Roses!

A quick video from Monday.

I now lives in Ikebukuro!

Moved in. And now to continue unpacking and reorganizing...

Tokyo side streets

Walking through some not-so-crowded area of Tokyo.

The Sony Building (Ginza)

In a large city there are a lot of famous things. There are traditional cultural places, local foods and celebrities, historic sites and more. Tokyo is of course no exception to this. I work twice a week in Ginza, a well-known and hyper-expensive shopping district. There are several awesome places in Ginza (I'll discuss this later when I start to outline some great places in Tokyo), but perhaps the most famous is the Sony building. Inside it's a great place to visit as a tourist or to kill some time if you're around and have a little, but my favorite is the outdoor display.

It's actually only a few buildings down from my work. Next to the building on the corner of a massive intersection is a display area where they set up all kinds of interesting outdoor stuff. It seems wholly incongruent that an electronics company would put nature displays up but I think that's part of the charm of Japanese culture. Here it isn't a mismatch.

In winter they imported a lot of snow from Hokkaido for the display. As I'm from Michigan it was unremarkable and I didn't take a photo, but the Tokyo-ites were all around the snow like they'd never seen it before. As a matter of fact, it does snow in Tokyo but the more recent increases in population have been affecting the local weather and snow has become infrequent. There's rarely any snow buildup anymore. Still, it was nice to see some imported snow.

Before the re-release of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children there were huge billboards in various places. I snapped a photo with my phone because I thought it was interesting.
That was over ten feet tall. I think I got a photo on one of the last days. ^_^;

Over the next few months there were several displays there, ranging from live performers, advertisements for new product campaigns, a Christmas tree and others. I didn't take photos of them but they were exceptionally well-crafted.

In May there was a nice surprise waiting for me. When I turned the corner I saw a spray of sunflowers. I forget where they came from, but it was awesome.

It's nice to see a little nature in the midst of the concrete sometimes.

And I think they believe so too. For June they brought in a garden complete with signs to please come up and enjoy it by walking through it.
I didn't have the courage to go up an walk through since nobody else was, plus I was in a hurry to head somewhere.

Monday before work I noticed a UNICEF ad. Apparently there'll be people there this weekend, but this is the stage.

Most of the displays are imported from somewhere kind of far away. It's almost gimmicky but I think it's great. Haven't figured out the schedule yet, but I think the displays are up for a week or two usually. The snow may have been around for less, but as I don't usually walk past the Sony building on a normal day I don't know. In any case it's a fun little addition when I do walk over there.