A Weekend-Trip, Japanese-Style
I just got back from my first ever Japanese-style weekend trip (i.e. mini-vacation). We went to Nikko, a little village and vacationing community built around a mostly inactive volcano and the beautiful lake that volcano created while having a little spat many years ago. There were 7 of us: 4 foreigners, and 3 natives. The foreigners were Adam, Rebecca, Janet, and me. The nihon-jin were an English teacher from my school and two Japanese women I'd never met before. Here's what we did.
Saturday
7:30--Depart
7:40--Stop at a souvenir shop
8:30--Stop at a rest stop
9:00--Pick up our final companion at a train station
10:45--Eat lunch
12:00--Arrive in Nikko, beautifully snow-covered but freezing; sight-see and check into our hotel
13:00--Slide down some kiddy slopes on little plastic sleds intended for children
14:00--While walking around, have a particularly vicious boys-against-girls snow ball fight (victor not determined), while our Japanese companion looked on in shock, perhaps horror
14:30--Go to an open-air "hot spa" with enough sulphur in it to give us what temporarily looked like pretty nasty sunburns (Note: Adam and I went with the teacher from my school. We met him down in the hotel lobby wearing our Japanese bathing robes, expecting the spa to be in the hotel--it wasn't. We had to walk 200 meters through the snow, in sub-zero weather, wearing bath robes, tiny slippers, and nothing else.)
15:30--Read, watch TV, and nap in our hotel rooms
18:00--Eat a very Japanese meal that includes lots of unidentified pickled vegetables, a variety of raw fish, 3 french fries (literally), the best carrots I've ever had, and raw deer meat--which Janet devoured.
20:00--Hang out in our rooms
Today:
8:00--Eat breakfast
9:00--Leave the hotel
9:05--Stop and explore some igloo-like structures made near our hotel
9:15--Stop for ice cream at a dairy farm (yes, we ate ice cream in the snow)
10:00--Rest stop
11:15--Eat lunch at a famous gyoza restaurant in Utsunomiya (a city near Nikko)
12:45--Drop off our friend at the station
1:30--Stop at the same rest-stop as before
2:20--Arrive back home
Total Time: Less than 30 hours. It wasn't exactly relaxing, but I think we all had a great time. And it felt like we saw a lot more than could normally be crammed into a 29-hour trip. So we seemed to get a good taste of the dual nature of Japanese trips: Short, bustling, tiring (and expensive)--but fun, well-executed, memorable, and accomplished without even having to think of taking a single day off from work.
Saturday
7:30--Depart
7:40--Stop at a souvenir shop
8:30--Stop at a rest stop
9:00--Pick up our final companion at a train station
10:45--Eat lunch
12:00--Arrive in Nikko, beautifully snow-covered but freezing; sight-see and check into our hotel
13:00--Slide down some kiddy slopes on little plastic sleds intended for children
14:00--While walking around, have a particularly vicious boys-against-girls snow ball fight (victor not determined), while our Japanese companion looked on in shock, perhaps horror
14:30--Go to an open-air "hot spa" with enough sulphur in it to give us what temporarily looked like pretty nasty sunburns (Note: Adam and I went with the teacher from my school. We met him down in the hotel lobby wearing our Japanese bathing robes, expecting the spa to be in the hotel--it wasn't. We had to walk 200 meters through the snow, in sub-zero weather, wearing bath robes, tiny slippers, and nothing else.)
15:30--Read, watch TV, and nap in our hotel rooms
18:00--Eat a very Japanese meal that includes lots of unidentified pickled vegetables, a variety of raw fish, 3 french fries (literally), the best carrots I've ever had, and raw deer meat--which Janet devoured.
20:00--Hang out in our rooms
Today:
8:00--Eat breakfast
9:00--Leave the hotel
9:05--Stop and explore some igloo-like structures made near our hotel
9:15--Stop for ice cream at a dairy farm (yes, we ate ice cream in the snow)
10:00--Rest stop
11:15--Eat lunch at a famous gyoza restaurant in Utsunomiya (a city near Nikko)
12:45--Drop off our friend at the station
1:30--Stop at the same rest-stop as before
2:20--Arrive back home
Total Time: Less than 30 hours. It wasn't exactly relaxing, but I think we all had a great time. And it felt like we saw a lot more than could normally be crammed into a 29-hour trip. So we seemed to get a good taste of the dual nature of Japanese trips: Short, bustling, tiring (and expensive)--but fun, well-executed, memorable, and accomplished without even having to think of taking a single day off from work.
posted by Peter Rice at 12:31 AM
2 Comments:
Sounds fun! Glad you're enjoying the remainder of your stay.
I did several of those mini-vacations while I was there. It cracked me up because I thought, "Wow, even on vacation the Japanese are working hard!" The one thing missing from your trip that would have made it really Japanese was stopping at 15 omiyage shops along the way. Oh yeah, and I loved the part about you having to walk to the onsen in your robe through the snow. :) Miss ya, Peter-kun!
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