Sunday, June 15, 2008

July 16,2006 - Nikko is Nippon

Nikko has been one of the finest trips of my life...Its like the things u dont expect,turn out to better that the ones u expect. We had all decided for a one day trip covering Nikko and Tobu World sqaure. But we were so mesmerised by the beauty of the place that we ended up stayin two days(wearin the same clothes ;-) i shud say)enjoyin every moment of it..

We started off early on Saturday 15 July. As usual we were all late to take off but managed to get the connecting train from Asakusa on time. It took arnd two and half hrs to reach Nikko. Soon we rchd Tobu World sqaure. Fabulous as it looked in the photographs was the place. It had 102 monuments from all around the world mapped to a scale of 1/25. We were all stunned by the beauty and the art work behind the creation of such fantastic replicas. It was as if the entire world was in front of you. We all got busy with our snappy sessions :-). Back from Tobu we rchd Nikko staion were we had nice Indian lunch(was like a oasis in a desert for us). It was around 3.30 and we hadnt even covered main Nikko, n we didnt even have the time to do so. so we decided to head back home :-(...hey but wait a sec...............we just enquired abt gettin rooms for an overnight stay...........n yeppie we got it!!!....all of us were so trilled that we got one more day to explore this beautiful place. so we headed to our hotel,freshened ourselves and moved out to explore the nearing waterfall. Next we explored the view point from where we cud see the beautiful Kegon falls. Stinking as we all were, we got some Deo's that cud save us. To our suprise the hotel housekeeping provided us with Yukata - A Japanese wrap around kinda thing.....we were soooo relived to have it :-)

Next day we started at around 8 in d morning....we took a bus from Nikki station to Chezunji lake. The bus ride was very pleasent...we were slowly rising the mountains taking sharp turns n twists..the scenery around was just amazing. We rchd our stop on top of the mountains and headed for Kirifuri falls. Between the high mountains the falls were a visual treat. Next we covered chezunji lake where we took a speed boat ride. The boat was reeeeeeally fast. had never sat in such a fast one before. Then We took a long walk towards another view pont where we took a rope way ride. altough the ride was small i had never experienced it bfore and evry moment of the it was worth. During the rest of the day we covered the famous Toshogu shrine,Rinnoji temple and Sanbutsudo. Sanbutsudo contains three immense gilded images of Buddha, very impressive, but no photgraps were allowed. Every surface of the shrine is covered in detailed and colourful ornamentation, creating a kind of visual overload.Soon it was time to head back home. We were all pretty tired but the return journey was also fun with lots of Jokes and funny talks.Manny Manny thanks to Ashu san for organising such a wonderful trip and leading us all the way. Kudos Ashu san

No comments: