Nov 05

Today we went to Nikko. We went through the "iroha" road, the road up to the mountain with 48 curves named after Japanese alphabet. "i-ro-ha" is Japanese "ABC". The view is very beautiful!! The leaves were colourful - we were so lucky we came at the right time! We were so fascinated by the beautiful scene.

When we finally reached the "civilisation", we first went to see Kegon Falls. We saw a deer on the rocks near the falls.

From there we went to enjoy the view of Lake Chuzenji. We walked along the beach - the water was very clear. The view was beautiful because the autumn leaves were colourful.

Then we went to see Ryuzu Falls. After that we went back down and visit Toshogu Shrine and got to see the tomb of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (after climbing so many steps which made us not cold anymore!).

We were supposed to see some monkeys after that but it was late in the afternoon, so we went back down to Utsunomiya.

Today was supposed to be the last day of fasting. Somehow I managed to fast while I'm here feeling cold and thirsty sometimes But tomorrow we will celebrate our (hopefully) victory in controlling ourselves. There will be feast

In the morning Hide showed us around Tobiyama park which is near his home where we are staying. It used to be the location of a small fortress and hiding place of some samurai. It is located on the hill, with a wide view down to Kinugawa (Kinu River) and Utsunomiya city, with Mt. Nantai in the background.

In the afternoon we went to Inogashira park. I was there 3 years ago. The park has a lake, a fishing pond, a rose garden, etc. scattered in the woods. The air was cool and fresh. We wanted to hire bicycles but the rental place was closed. So we just walked around in the park, enjoying the view of colourful autumn leaves and the air.

In the evening, Rani and Hide took us to an okonomiyaki restaurant called "Doutonburi". It was cold and windy outside - I was glad when we entered the restaurant. I had eaten okonomiyaki before. Hide had cooked for us when he was in Jakarta years ago. But this was the first time for Didi. He enjoyed it very much I was full. おなかいっぱい！