People count contraction - 9/2/'14
It is 8:20 AM, although it is the land of the rising sun it has let us down for now...
After the night passed and the alarm clocks were thrown out the window it was time to start this Sunday at 6:45 AM. After some typical wake-up routines people collected in front of the hostel, some with alcohol vapor hanging around others just tired our day responsible even both. We already knew it would give a lot of snow but it was maybe even worse than most thought. Slipping and skating our way to the metro station where we arrived unharmed leaving a trail of alcohol vapor and noise. People count: 23.
With our Pasmos' (Metro pas) in hand we checked in and made our way to the platform, at least that was the plan until someone noticed he forgot his Japan Rail pass. Half a minute later we were on the metro leaving 4 persons behind who would pick up their passes from the hotel. A minor setback of course, but we wouldn't let that ruin going to Nikko. People count: 19. After surviving the subway we arrived at the train station which meant we would get our first taste of the Shinkansen. All of a sudden someone found out that he also forgot his rail pas, he ran off into the unknown. Still, this was not going to stop us from getting into the Shinkansen and get on our way to Nikko. We arrived at the platform ahead of time. People count: 18.
Of course this was not all that went wrong. The land of the rising sun has let us down, it was 8:20 AM we should have got on the Shinkansen at 8:14 AM. What had happened? We thought the average delay was 12 seconds for the Japanese trains (they don't even have space on the announcements boards for delay), apparently the railroads are only working spotless if there is no snow, which means its hardly snowing in Japan. So now after about 20 minutes we got on the Shinkansen, 5 people still missing, and time to go as fast as the speed of light (almost). After thundering at high speed we had to change to one more train that would bring us to Nikko. People count still: 18.
At that station of Nikko, we started throwing snowballs at each other while Rowan tried to get some money from an ATM, which didn't happen. Probably the locals weren't too happy with us throwing all the snow back on the pave they just cleaned the morning. We headed up the hill further and got to an ATM, everybody got his share of the bounty and it was time to tackle the mountain (temple).
We split up in random groups, my group decided to get something to eat before getting to the temples. We got into a small restaurant and got some pretty nice noodles and green tea. After replenishing our energy it was time to head up and go see some Japanese culture. We first got to a 'temporary' shrine (more than 500 years old), first thing noticed that there were a lot of charms one could buy. The second part we visited was the main temple, where we found a pleasant surprise, the lost soles had arrived more alive than ever. The temple was massive and impressive, everything was nicely decorated with gold and all sorts of animals were engraved in the wood of the buildings. Bit of a shame it was cloudy and we tried to warm our bodies in the little sun we got, we weren't really keen on taking of our shoes (in japan you take of your shoes at a lot of places). So because of that it was difficult to find the right mindset for entering the temple and shrines, but it was totally worth the cold toes and see all the beautiful shrines. People count: 23!
After the temple we had a cup of coffee and a piece of cake (how dutch of us). We headed down the hill back to the train station, it was decided to go back to Tokyo earlier than planned before. In the process we then again lost three, they didn't get the information about leaving Nikko a bit earlier and instead tried out some snow shoes of random locals. People count: 20.
Everything got dark and gloomy sitting in the Shinkansen towards Tokyo, they turned up the heat pretty well, making the trip sleepy, silent and very short. Back in Tokyo we got to an Indian restaurant, which was quit a weird experience (even in Japanese the Indian have that typical Indian accent). Back at the hostel we got another beer and sat in the chill room, where after a while three people we didn't see in a while popped around the corner. In the end we all got back in one piece, we'll see if the next day we will get the same twisted people counts during the day. Lets end the day with the final people count and a cheers! People count: 23!
By: Eelco Bussink