2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip
Day 22/105 - Tokyo, Japan - Nikko Shrine
Today, we had an adventure. Our trivia team, Titanic Swim Team, booked an excursion through the company Get Your Guide. We booked Tokyo: Nikko Toshogu Shrine and Kegon Waterfall Tour. The plan - a ten-hour tour, returning to Tokyo at 6 p.m. to give us plenty of time to get an Uber back to the ship for our 7 p.m. onboard time. Sounds perfect.
We took an Uber to the meeting point and got on the tour bus.
It was shortly after that that things went south. Our tour guide informed us that because this was a Sunday and a national holiday, we wouldn't be back to the meeting point until 7 p.m. or later. That was a problem as the ship was sailing at 8p.m. to vacate our berth, returning at 11 a.m. tomorrow morning.
We talked with our guide and she conferred with the driver. The consensus was that we needed to forgo two of the three stops on the tour and get a train back to Tokyo. Wow.
Our first stop was a comfort stop at a rest area and store. Our guide talked about the interesting flavors of potato chips that this area had. Between us, we picked up strawberry and lemon potato chips. Both were quite good with just a hint of fruit flavor.
We continued on toward the Nikko Toshogo shrine. Our guide explained that at the hot spring stop, there was a unisex locker room where you were expected to disrobe to enter the hot springs. We all thought about it for a microsecond and decided that none of us would be doing that if we even made it to the hot springs.
It really didn't matter as the more we talked about it, we realized that our tour would be the shrine and nothing more. Oh well, no getting naked with others. Probably a good thing!
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| Nice views along the way |
We arrived at the Nikko Toshogu Shrine and headed in. The place was absolutely packed. Here are the photos in no particular order.
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| The map of the shrine that the tour operator provided |
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| Along the entry |
Arlona made the more than 200-step run up to a tomb. I opted to remain at the bottom.
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| There were people everywhere |
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| Some of the ornamental add-ons were very interesting |
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| The monkey carvings are one of the notable items here |
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Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil
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| The artist carved these without ever seeing an elephant in person |
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| The sleeping cat is a famous carving - it was not impressive |
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| The main shrine did not allow photography inside |
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| A couple of the interior shrines required removing your shoes. They provided shoe storage. |
This is the entry to the crying dragon shrine. No photography was allowed inside the shrine. The ceiling was painted with the image of a dragon. A guide inside demonstrated its unique property. Standing behind the painting, he whacked two wooden blocks together. They made a loud clap. Then, he stepped under the dragon, just a few feet forward, and repeated the whack. There was a distinct ringing echo in the chamber - the sound of the crying dragon.
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| Karen, Betsy, Arlona, Garry, James |
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| This struck me as funny |
We left the shrine and at this point, we were on our own. Our guide had suggested that a train back to Tokyo was our best option. Here's the issue - there is no "train" to Tokyo. There is a series of trains, but it is unbelievably impossible to interpret how to get there unless you speak Japanese, which we do not. Traveling in Japan is most likely similar to traveling in the US for non-US folks. Think about it - the US doesn't speak other languages. We don't accept other currencies. Japan is similar. Very few people speak anything other than Japanese, at least outside Tokyo. Public transit does not take credit cards and requires Yen. The country, as a whole, is not tourism-friendly, much like the US.
Ultimately, we, and by "we", I mean Karen, figured out our route. We took a couple of transfers and finally made it back to Tokyo. But not without drama. We started our 1.5-mile hike to the train station.
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| The Shinkyo Bridge - a Unesco World Heritage site |
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| Waffles - not like Barcelona, but still... |
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The former Nikko City Hall |
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| Eventually, we found the train station |
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| We're all good - or so we thought... |
We could not figure out the route. Japan has multiple train systems. They all connect together in spots, but it is very confusing. We got some help from a worker who spoke very little English, but certainly more than the Japanese we speak. She told us what to buy and we purchased tickets. When we went to the platform, another worker told us these were the wrong tickets. Yikes! We went back and forth with a ticket agent. They refunded us for the wrong tickets and sold us what we hoped were the right tickets. The trip involved getting on one train for two stops, getting off and transferring to another for about 1.5 hours, then another transfer to a subway to reach our destination in Tokyo.
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| The crew, waiting for the train |
We caught the train, made our first, and then second transfer, and wound up on the final train to Tokyo. Here is the Titanic Swim Team, trying to interpret what stop was ours, as we were packed, shoulder-to-shoulder in the train.
We got to the station and ultimately found the Viking bus after a call to the ship for clarification on the meeting point. The last shuttle was scheduled for 6 p.m. back to the ship. We got on at 5:59 p.m. and were thrilled.
We made it back to the ship and hit up the World Café for surf and turf night with filets and lobster. We went to the Explorers’ Bar and participated in trivia. We netted 11/15 on world capitals – not enough for the win but still respectable. We spent the rest of the night at the Explorers’ Bar, enjoying conversation, libations, and working on this blog post.
All in all, it was a good day. Days that don’t go as planned lead to good stories and better memories. We spent a good day with Karen, James, and Betsy, and it was fun, even if it wasn’t what we planned. Karen was relentless in figuring out the plan every time the plan changed. Life is good.
Tomorrow, we’ll dock back in Tokyo and have more adventures.
Brave souls!
ReplyDeleteWe have found that Japan is very much ready for tourism. The trains are easy to navigate. The ticket kiosks have an English option and they take credit cards with a pin. I do agree that the US is the least friendly country to non English tourists. At least in Japan, you do see English on signs and at tourist sights.
ReplyDeleteHow do you take the 360 photos?
ReplyDeleteWith an Insta360 camera
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