What
a morning !
Strong sunshine over the mountain - we
were really relieved to see it after two
days of rain.
Today
the Haruna-Fuji, the volcanic mountain,
looks less mythical than yesterday, but it
is nonetheless impressive.
We
saw a photo of the frozen lake, where ice
skates can be enjoyed. This must be
a great experience!
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We
have a heavy traveling before us today
again, but we will not bore you with
it.
Instead,
we report you the experiences from
yesterday.
Here
you see the entrance of the hotel bath
(separated strictly by
gender!).
Since
the beginning of our trip, we have been
trying to secretly photograph the typical
Japanese bath from inside, but till now no
success.
Whenever
it seemed we were alone, the door opened
and bath-ready-looking men came in (not
that they looked dirty, simply ready to
enjoy the relaxation in a
bath).
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Between
the dinner and the ëbedtimeí
we renewed our devotion to take the
picture in the bath again!.
No
shoes were found at the entrance of the
bath - it looked promising. No one
in the bath, finally we were
alone.
Hurry,
now!
You
take off your Yukata (summer Kimonos) in a
room before you go in the bath.
The
bath towel looks rather big in the photo,
but it is actually little larger than two
sheets of paper and as thin as a
papertowel.
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Then
quick in the bath.
At
a wall, there were neatly placed tools to
help you take your bath.
Now
on your marks and start
washing!
But
caution: not to jump into the bath with
any soap left on your body!
Shampoo
und soaps are sponsored by the hotel, but
which is which anyway?
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One
press on the button and the bath bowl is
filled with just the right amount of
water.
Now
with a correct swing, you lift the bath
bowl over the head and empty it - so you
wash off the soap on your body.
As
you can see, weíve already got a
hang of it.
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Only
after this ëritual washingí,
you may finally enter the hot bath
(between 40 and 45 degrees
celsius).
As
most of the hotel rooms (hotels of our
price range) do not have a shower, we have
gotten used to going to bath before bed
time - it is a great way to relax and to
achieve the right sleep mode.
In
the hotels, the staffs are, sadly enough,
familiar with the bad manners of
foreigners in the bath. So they kept
reminding us to shower before going into
the hot bath tub again and
again.
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So
- but now we are back with todayís
program:
After
6 hours of travelling, we decided to
devote the afternoon for a pure cultural
experience in Nikko.
As
a start we walked up the steps of
Rin-no-ji Tempel.
Before
entering the temple, you cleanse your
hands with this spring water.
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At
the temple entrance we got directions
right away: no shoes, knee down and no
photos.
After
a monch directed us to sit down on our
knees among herds of Japanese visitors he
started to (supposedly) explain about the
building that contains gold all
over. We could not understand any
word of the original explanation, but we
could tell from the Oh`s and Ah`s of other
visitors that the explanation held
extraordinary stories.
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In
the much longer second part of the
explanation, the monch started to show
various ëseem-to-be-preciousí
objects and handed them out to visiters to
take a look.
Only
after we were exiting the temple, we
realized that all these objects were sold
in the temple shops at outrageous prices
and that we were simply tricked in the
monchís informercial
sessions.
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Our
next stop was the most famous shrine in
Nikko, the Toshogu-Shrine.
The
22 buildings were built by around 15.000
carpenters from all over Japan.
What
makes this shrine so special is the amount
of Gold that was used and its interesting
contrast to the black wood.
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Many
visitors went by one of the points of
interest without noticing.
It
is a stable for the holy horses and the
famous carvings of thress monkeys
expressing the teaching of satisfying life
ënot listening, not telling and not
seeing of negative things`.
As
you can see we did not miss this cultural
delicacy.
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Our
daily special:
`The
Puzzler` (Are you a Japan
expert?)
New
impressions and curiosities as a daily Q
& A.
5)
What is the object on the photo
?
(Answer:
just click on the photo)
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