Tochigi

So, we were planning on going to Nikko this past weekend because we couldn't get a bus out to Kyoto (*cries*). And then destiny helped out! My favorite J-Pop group, Arashi's TV show (Himitsu no Arashi-chan) took the Arashi Guys to Nikko!!!!
I learned a lot of stuff about Nikko right before I left, so I decided to make my Nikko adventure an Arashi-inspired one!!!

First thing I did when I got there was eat Yuba no nimono(its really flat tofu sheets rolled together and boiled in a shoyu-based soup). It was really silky and yummy!

Yuba

Then I later decided to eat at Nikko Miyamae Dango... Just like the Arashi guys did!!!

They use rice instead of the usual mochiko (rice powder) which makes the dango sweeter and softer because it's rice, it's not so chewy and absorbs the flavor of the miso and brown sugar better. It was awesome! But the wait was craaazy. I guess a lot of girls watched HnA on Friday, cuz there was a 20 min. long line there when I went, and later in the day, the line was even longer! But it was good, and I met the old lady who owns the shop. She's cute. Poor thing works so hard. She told me that the crazy lines were a new thing for them.

The next thing I had to do was go to the World Heritage area. I have been to a fair share of temples, shrines, and other historical sites. But Nikko is seriously so beautiful and the temples are waay over the top. I decided to save Toshogu for the second day of my trip because of all of the details. I got to see the sacred horse and the Monkey "circle of life" that adorns his stable. It was pretty awesome to see it in person.


The Famous Hear, Speak, See No Evil spot

The sacred white horse

Then, I made an effort to figure out where the power spot was. It took me a little while, but there is a guy that is sitting selling cameras, and I was like, "Is this the power spot?" and he told me it was. I took a picture of it... Then, I am a little too tall for 160cm (i'm like 165) so I had to squat just a little bit to see the Higurashi Mon framed by the tori, but I did see it. And it was pretty cool. Thanks HnA for the info!

View from the "Power Spot"

Toshogu

I also went up the Irohazaka on the bus to get to Kegon Falls. Irohazaka is the famous road in Nikko that takes a total of 48 crazy hairpin turns to get up and down the mountain that is home to the Nikko National Park. Iroha is the old way of saying the Japanese alphabet (character system) and using all 48, a poem was created.

i ro ha ni ho he to
chi ri nu ru wo
wa ka yo ta re so
tsu ne na ra mu
u wi no o ku ya ma
ke fu ko e te
a sa ki yu me mi shi
we hi mo se su

Aaaaaanyways, this was crazy, especially on the ride down. The bus was sooo crowded that I had to sit in the very front pull down seat (it gets pulled down in the aisle from the arm rest of the seat to the right or left of the aisle) and I swear if there was an abrupt stop, I would have flown straight out of that seat out the window and over the cliff.

Ok, so the reason I went up there, the waterfall. It was pretty awesome. 97 meters of beauty. I've seen a lot of waterfalls in my lifetime, but I think this was the first time I was able to walk down to the foot of one and be able to feel the cool mist and see the massive size it really has. Also, the walls surrounding the main falls were "weeping" as well, so it was quite spectacular.

The Last part of my Nikko Adventure was the Masuzushi (Salmon on sushi rice) And the bonus! There was a park between the Nikko Park Lodge and the sites that had a huuuuuuuge roller-slide! Sooooo much fun, but my pants were soaked!!!