Nikko and Edo Wonderland

FIRSTLY THIS:

Yes that's me

As I said in a previous post, Thursday was a no school day for us! So all the Oregon students and some of the International Club's Japanese students took a field trip to a place called Nikko! Around 2 and a half hours north of Tokyo, we rode by bus to see a place called Toshogu Shrine and afterwards went to Edo Wonderland.

First the Shrine.  This place is very famous for 4 main things: The three wise monkeys (hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil), the sleeping cat statue, the crying dragon room, and it is also the resting place for Tokugawa Ieyasu's remains (founder of the Tokugawa bakufu aka the EDO period. Edo was the old capital...today it is known as Tokyo ;D  )

I tried to get shots that didn't have hordes of people in them- it was difficult :/

One of these pillars is upside down

The upside down pillar was built on purpose...the idea comes from the old Japanese saying, 'Once a building is completed, its destruction begins.' " Now, with the building incomplete it will last forever .

Tomo, Daichi and Kanako my adorable friends!

I like seeing the guardian dogs in all the temples and shrines I visit

The three wise monkeys

The sleeping cat...WHY IS THIS FAMOUS? no one knows but everyone photographs it.

Tokugawa Ieyasu's memorial place

 I wasn't allowed to take photos of the 4th thing though, the crying dragon. So here's a picture of it from a website. This dragon is painted on the ceiling of a hall.

From:   http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2267/2416775142_5f0699be37.jpg

 This room honestly gave me chills. A man would take these wooden clappers and bang them together really loud. At first nothing would happen except the usual wooden clacking noise...then he walked directly under the picture and clapped them together again-  this eerie echo followed,  which is supposed to be the sound of the crying dragon. So amazing!

A few other pictures from the Shrine: 

Tomo stole a bite of Daichi's bread when he wasn't looking

Nick ate this whole baguette super fast!

Kanako is so cute!

Anyway, on the way out, this group of elementary schoolers came up to a few of us to "interview" us in English. SO CUTE. Basically they were like "what do you think of Nikko? My name is ___...Enjoy your stay in Japan!"

We hit the bus again after lunch and landed in Edo wonderland, which is supposed to be a historical recreation site. It's basically an area where everyone dresses up like they're samurai and merchants and geishas and stuff and tries to recreate what the Edo period was like. It was fun except I think they played up on the kind of Western Stereotyped idea of Edo (ninjas, geishas etc). In all my college Japan history classes, not once were ninjas every mentioned...I mean this place was cool but rather than being really historically accurate it accentuated the western love of medieval Japan I think.

We had tons of fun though! And it was a really beautiful place:

Kanako and a statue of Michizane

 Everyone on the bridge were looking at these HUUUGE koi! You could feed them for 100 yen (about a dollar) and the fish would just go nuts!

OM NOM NOM NOM

Bounty Hunters

 One of the attractions was this haunted house...They had some cool things in it like this guy...In Buddhism, King Yama decides if you go to hell or not. Obviously we got sent to hell, having to walk thru all these creepy haunted rooms....but at the end of the haunted house, they had this big gold statue of Amida Buddha- signifying you survived the hell house and made it to the pure land.

Photo thanks to Dorothy!

  They also had a ninja maze! Which was really fun and actually took a while to figure out.

My favorite picture basically. Dorothy is so saaad! and lost

No fear. Mikaela aka Lewis with her partner Dorothy aka Clark, eventually figured it out. Oregon Represent.

Dorothy is too happy in this shot haha

There were live performances too! These guys put on this really impressive show, we got pics with them later

I think Nick's picture was the best though:  

 Davoodi's was pretty good too!

Other pictures:

Further proof why Doro needs to start modeling

I Heart Japan. Also, it's so beautiful- the background looks fake!

I dunno what I was laughing at...but see guys! Don't worry I'm having a great time.

That's all for Nikko! This week is seeing a traditional dance with my friend Kanako, the Niji no Kai (international club) Halloween party, and the Waseda Baseball game! I am going as a zombie school girl to the Party haha. Pics definitely to come later but here's a shot of what I have so far:

Just need to add some blood and stuff right!?

On a side note it's actually feeling like fall a bit here now. It's getting colder.... Hey you Pacific Northwest people, I hear a big storm is coming your way this winter. Good luck with that ;)

Happy Halloween everyone! Carve a pumpkin for me.