Nikko/Sumo

Michael and I had a very fun filled weekend. We went to Nikko on Saturday with Michael’s teacher, Kawai-sensei. She is an official tour guide for Nikko, so it was nice to have her explain some of the history. To get to Nikko there is a super crazy windy road, Irohazaka niban, with more than 25 turns. Michael did not drive too fast, so luckily I did not get carsick. We first went to Kegon Falls, which was a beautiful waterfall. We could watch the waterfall all day long, but we decided not to and headed to another waterfall, Ryuzu Falls. Ryuzu Falls was not as high of a waterfall, but there are 2 falls that come together which is depicted as a dragon’s head and that’s what Ryuzu means. There is a path alongside Ryuzu Falls that we walked up and it was very pretty, but exhausting. After Ryuzu Falls, we went over to Lake Chuzenji to enjoy the view of the lake and the mountains. It was a perfect day. For a Saturday, Nikko was not crowded and the weather was the best it could be. We decided to have lunch by Lake Chuzenji. We found a little restaurant that had set meals. Michael and Kawai-sensei order a whole fish grilled and finished with salt and I opted for the fried smelt. Each of our set meals includes yuba, beancurd sheet rolls, which was a famous food item in the Nikko area. The way the restaurant prepared the yuba was a little sweet. Still trying to determine if I really liked it. After lunch we headed down the mountains taking Irohazaka ichiban. Again, it was a super crazy windy road and we went slower because of all the traffic. We headed towards Nikko National Park to see the 2 shrines and temple. Nikko National Park with Toshogu Shrine, Futarasan Shrine, and Rinno-ji was declared a World Heritage Site in 1999 by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). Since we were low on time we opted to visit Toshogu Shrine. After Toshogu Shrine, we went to a senbei (rice cracker) building that was a big store, but inside the store they allow you to buy blank senbei’s to design yourself with soy sauce “paint” as they called it. Spending the day in Nikko was amazing and we shall return.

On Sunday, we went to Tokyo to see the Sumo Tournament. We met up with Dinorah and Arnulfo in the afternoon because we were pretty tired from spending the whole day at Nikko. The four of us shared a box seat, which basically meant we were on the first level and we sat on cushions. It was pretty cool because the box in front of us had no one, so we slowly moved into that area for more room. The sumo day starts off with low ranking sumos, Juryo. Close to 4:30pm was the beginning of the higher ranked sumo matches. The higher ranked sumo matches were more unpredictable because they would try to trick the opponent more often on when the match would actually begin. To top off the awesome sumo experience, Michael and I met Alton Brown from Food Network. He was a very nice man and took pictures with us. I always wanted to meet a celebrity; I never would have guessed it would be in Tokyo!

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