Countryside shrine day

caught my Dad sleeping...no surprise?
cute cute

the majestic scene of Nikko
RAGE!

Saturday June 19 (Day 17)

AHH Saturday. Today we were going to wake up, run, get our endorphins going, and run before we met my dad to catch the train towards Nikko. Today I pressed the snooze button on my alarm several times. AND today, due to our deep sleep and dodging of the alarm, we didn’t get to run. That is basically the story of our early Saturday morning: one with so much potential but so little success. Instead, a vow was made for tomorrow morning and with heads held high we met my dad in our hotel lobby for our day’s adventure. We headed towards Tokyo station’s JR to catch the Shinkasen (bullet train) towards Nikko. According to people we knew and online sources, Nikko was a place of beauty and enchantment, scattered with shrines, marshes, and bridges. To my surprise the transit there was extraordinarily easy. Knowing the train system to Tokyo like the back of our hand, Bean and I led the way. To get on the JR, even with the language gap, was very easy and we were soon sitting on the bullet train for a little over an hour. The train ride was full of conversation about what we have learned, tried, and updates on life. Our last leg of the one-way trip was the Nikko line, a public train system that lasted 40 minutes till Nikko was finally reached. A little hungry and tired, I quickly made the decision that food was a necessary first find in Nikko. The quaint town of Nikko resembled an old time mountain town in the lush greenery of the mountain’s forests. The color green that we had not seen in so long flooded our eyes with practically tears. The walk from the train station to the base of the shrine area was about 40 minutes, but along the way we took a lunch break at a restaurant resembling a cute chapel of some sort. The food was deliciously scrumptious in my tum: beef rice bowl, salad, soup and tea. With stomachs full to the absolute BRIM, we gladly walked the rest of the way to the shrines. Entering every shrine was a new experience and although I have seen hundreds of shrines throughout my lifetime, each one never loses its wonder. Needless to say we walked miles and miles that day through the shrines,　including getting there and back from the train station. While at the shrines, the sky unleashed its rain, sometimes a slight rain and sometimes a brief downpour, but nothing fierce enough to lessen our desire to see as much as possible. On our way back we stopped for ice cream, bought our tickets, and bought coffee for the train ride back. Once on the train, we soon realized that amazingly our one train car on the Nikko line had 3 languages being spoken, journal writers, tattoo covered people, rapper-asian looks, and my dad’s wide-open-mouth-snoring. Finally figuring out the people with tattoos were from Spain, I couldn’t help but listen intently for the Spanish language that I missed so much. Also, there may or may not be a photo of my sleeping father floating around in some stranger’s camera now :). The bullet train back was a dream. Literally. We all slept the entire time and luckily woke up to the announcement of Tokyo! Attempting to open my eyes and remind my body how to move, we slowly made our way back to Roppongi to eat dinner. Dinner was at a wonderful, interesting restaurant featured in the Kill Bill movie. Like Moes’ “Welcome to Moes” cheer, we got some Japanese welcome and were soon seated. Similar to tapas, we shared several dishes (each one being as good as the one before). Finally, with full stomachs we headed home to sleep and take advantage of Sunday, the last day of the weekend.