Back again for some more thrilling tales of our Japan travels for 2024! If you missed Part 1 and Part 2, there are the links for you to do some catching up. I was going to wrap it up here, but I did a quick word count check on the previous two parts, and that second was quite lengthy. Part 3 was turning out to be the same if not worse, so there will be a Part 4.
Thanks for reading along if you are still here!
And now, leaving Tokyo.
It was Tuesday morning and officially Day 10 of the trip when we packed up and left Tokyo. We were headed north to the mountains for a couple of days staying at Kinugawa-onsen. We followed the directions from Google Maps about which trains to take, and ended up on a more expensive reserved seat express train. We didn't mind the extra price though, since the seats were much more comfortable than a regular train would have been, especially with all our luggage. There was space to hang our jackets on and blinds for the windows, and tray tables so we could read or colour.
When we arrived in Kinugawa-onsen though, the weather was pretty terrible. It had been raining when we left Tokyo, but up in the mountains it was raining and freezing. I was very thankful for my new and much thicker Uniqlo jacket and also that I'd packed everyone's raincoats. We had another ten minute walk to from the station to our accomodation, and the wind blowing the rain in our faces for the whole walk was very unwelcoming.
We arrived before lunch, so dropped our bags off and then had to wander around in the cold looking for somewhere to eat. Thankfully we found a delicious restaurant and Steve had the best beer of the trip, delivered to him with the smallest glass ever.
The wind and rain was really making me re-think everything we had planned for our time in the mountains, but as we ate our lunch and talked things over, we just came to the realisation that we would make the most of it. Even if tomorrow was nothing but staying in and enjoying playing the card games we had packed, that would be ok.
The rain died down after lunch so we wandered around the town some more and looked at all the souvenirs. Steve found this box of "Strawberries, impregnated with chocolate" that he immediately bought.
We went into the tourist place to ask about a few things we had been keen to do. River boat cruise - not open until the following week. Edo Wonderland - closed on a Wednesday. Things were not looking good for us! Thankfully the information person was super helpful at suggesting lots of other things we could do instead. So with ideas in hand, we followed her advice for the afternoon and wandered down to the suspension bridge over the river.
The girls had loads of fun finding these oni, which translates as demons in English, though I'm not sure that really captures what they are. There were lots of cherry blossoms on the main street (which was actually named sakura-chou (Cherry Blossom Street), that we of course took photos with.
We went back to our accomodation by four to properly check in and went to our room. One thing I'd been looking forward to here was going to the onsen and since the day was so cold and rainy, the girls were very keen too. Steve and I were still trying to sort out bags and unpack slightly and they were already getting their things ready to go.
I wasn't sure how they would take the onsen, but I'd explained how it all worked, and I was there with them, so it went fine. Great actually! I had been worried they would find the water too hot, but they both loved soaking and chatting. The place we stayed had an inside and outside onsen, and even though the weather was still very rubbish, the outside one was still nice to sit in.
For dinner we wandered back into town and found a ramen place to eat at. Simple but warm and filling on this cold and rainy day.
Since we'd gotten to Japan, I'd seen the signs for karaoke places everywhere and had semi-jokingly said to the girls "we should do karaoke!" At first, they were not keen, but as the week had gone by, and they'd asked more questions about what it was like, they were more and more interested. It was now the point that they were actively asking if we could do karaoke before we left.
So as we left the ramen place, and noticed that next door said karaoke, prompted by the girls we checked it out. It was already 8pm, so we didn't stay, but the people in the karaoke place did say they were open tomorrow (even though it was Wednesday), they had a dinner menu and the kids were fine. The girls were delighted to hear all of these things.
Wednesday morning dawned bright and beautiful. The rain clouds of yesterday were gone and blue skies awaited us. We all wore so many less layers and I don't think I even packed our rain coats. It was so different to the previous day.
Our first stop was to a Begonia Farm, thanks to the suggestions from the information lady yesterday. We took a bus there from the main station in Kinugawa-onsen. There was a strawberry farm next door, but we opted not to pick any, since we've done that in Australia. Instead, we paid our entrance to the Begonia Farm and walked on in.
I had no idea it was a thing, but these begonia were hanging from the roof and flowers were cascading all around. On the sides, were potted plants with flowers as big as Rachel's face.
This place had been suggested to us because it had a baby animal area where kids could feed, pat and watch small animals, but I'll tell you what, those flowers were impressive too!
Each one was different in colour, shape or petal type. It was so amazing it was also a little overwhelming.
After wandering around here, we went through to the animals where the girls nearly died of delight seeing tiny gerbils, chipmunks, guinea pigs and rabbits.
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Steve also got to see an axolotl!
The girls could have stayed for longer, but we wanted to keep moving, so we caught another bus to a train station. Unfortunately this is where my plans came a little unstuck, because our timing was off and the rural train wasn't due for another hour! Rather than wait around, we opted to call for and pay a somewhat expensive taxi fare to get us into Nikko.
Nikko is the historic site for a number of temples and shrines. Usually the ones you see on the tourist brochure for Japan. Before we went into the main area, we stopped for lunch. This was the right choice, since having to climb all the stairs in the temple precinct would have been a nightmare with hungry children.
As it was, we found a Manten chicken place and had the most delicious chicken burgers ever. Again, making Sophie happy with this more western styled meal, but we were all pretty blown away by how great it was.
We went up into Toshougu and found the Three Monkeys and the Sleeping Cat.
It was busy, but people were moving through so that was good. The temples are really in the forest, so it was cool to be surrounded by the cool green calm as we wandered around these old buildings.
After walking around for a bit, we went back down the main street into town to catch a train back to Kinugawa-onsen. Along the way, we saw more cool random things like this fountain.
And also this picturesque bridge that we couldn't walk over, but took this photo from a bridge just down from it that we could.
We stopped for some vending machine ice cream for the girls, and some fun Japanese puddings in cute little jars for Steve and I. We got to take the cute jars home too.
It was still a beautiful day which was so nice, especially given the previous day's weather! Train ride back into Kinugawa-onsen and a last stop at the souvenir stores there before we went back to our accomodation for another trip into the onsen. Aside from the strange Strawberries, Impregnated with Chocolate, the other interesting food item we bought was this cake that looked like it had been cooked on a rotisserie, where a new layer of cake batter was added every now and then. It was a little dry, but still cake-like and sweet.
That night, the girls lived their karaoke dream! We turned up at the place right about 7, when they opened. Because it was a small town, there weren't private rooms like most karaoke places in Japan, but just one main room with lots of TVs for the lyrics. We were early, since the girls don't do great if they don't get enough sleep, so it was pretty empty, with just a couple of other Japanese guys turning up and humouring us as we sang along.
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