Nikko (Saturday, October 9)

We really have had pretty good weather so far on the trip.  We did not totally believe the reports that said weather during this time should be between the low 60s and the mid 70s.  It was, although it occasionally crept up into warmer highs.

Our luck ran out yesterday.  We left Tokyo in a light rain that turned into a steady downpour, as we made our way up to Nikko, a couple of hours north of Tokyo.  Nikko is a World Heritage Site, home as it is to what is billed as the most elaborate shrine in Japan (as well as many other sacred sites) and the mausoleum of Tokugawa leyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate.  It is also the gateway to Nikko National Park, with beautiful mountains, waterfalls, lakes, etc.  We could have been in downtown Tokyo for all the mountains we saw!  Virtually everything was fog enshrouded as we made our way on the bus through the park.  It reminded me of a trip many years ago that I took through Austria where it rained every day and I spent a day in each of Innsbruck and Salzburg and never say a mountain.

And I hadn't dressed appropriately for the weather.  Here I had packed a rain jacket, schlepped it the entire trip, but when we consolidated down to one bag for this brief weekend trip, I packed lightly and didn't bring it.  Not only that, I was wearing a short-sleeved shirt in a steady rain and  the temperature had dropped into the 50s.

You have to love my wife though.  Determined to get her money's worth, we are off walking up to waterfalls (which admittedly were spectacular).  A woman whom I can't get to take a walk in Wellesley power walks her way through the fog and rain to capture photos of fog enshrouded waterfalls.  It is a shame about the weather, as you can tell this is a really beautiful spot.  I am only kidding, too.  I was a willing participant and it was worth it.  Not to say that we both weren't quite happy to get to our hotel.  Hotel Tokugawa is a modern ryokan, which combines the amenities of a modern hotel with some of the traditional aspects (think kaiseki and public bath) of the ryokan.  It is really nice and the food was excellent.

Kegon Falls

Yudaki Falls

It is Sunday morning and it is still raining.  Fortunately the hotel has Internet access, and Andrea may try to catch the Yankees game on MLBTV.com.  The hotel has a shuttle that runs to the famous shrines, and we plan to make the visit later in the morning - come hell of high water, as they say.