Sometimes all we do is cope.
So, a few weeks ago (right after Halloween) three of my friends and I went to Nikko, a little town north of here. It's pretty famous for things like temples and scenery and fall foliage, so we decided to head on up there and check it out and have a nice girl's weekend. Unfortunately, my camera was effing broken, so I had to steal all my pictures from my friends. I'll put those up on my flickr site soon, I promise.
We left Tokyo pretty early and took the nice express train out. On the train we met a Canadian set designer who's name I no longer remember, but he was a cool guy. We invited him to slog through the POURING rain to have lunch with us, then we headed up to our hotel to check in. He came with us, but we parted ways when he discovered there were no rooms available. Anyways, we checked into our excellent hotel, the Nikko Park Lodge, and arranged dinner (Laura and I went for the "Zen" dinner - all vegan) and then decided to take a little walk around, defying the rain's attempt to keep us inside. It was really beautiful - the trees were all these amazing reds and yellows and there were leaves all over the very small street. I felt like we were walking in a poem.
We made a stop at the Nikko Beer Brewery for beer and snacks. I got overcharged for my food - they charged us twice for this sausage plate Claire and I shared. That story is important because when we tried to sort it out we couldn't prove anything because Claire had lost her receipt, but after we left they must've counted down the register and realized we were right because the owners of the place found us at our hotel and returned my money! It was amazing! We had several instances of money stupidity that weekend and not once was any money actually lost. It was amazing.
After we got back to the hotel, we all lay around for an hour or so reading and enjoying the electric blankets on our beds ( it was really freaking cold in Nikko) and then had dinner. After dinner Chels went back to the room to read and Laura, Claire and I lit out for the local onsen. We had a good time laying about in hot water and chatting for an hour or so. While we were there, it started SNOWING. Not hard enough to stick, but hard enough that we could see it and it got all over our jackets as we walked back. I was actually pretty excited despite the cold - snow is cool! When we got back to the hotel we sat around the wood-burning stove chit-chatting with some drunk Australians, then went to bed.
I'm gonna try and get day two of the Nikko trip up tomorrow and the story of my magical trip to Disney Sea on Friday. I wanted to at least have a record of what I've been up to.
We left Tokyo pretty early and took the nice express train out. On the train we met a Canadian set designer who's name I no longer remember, but he was a cool guy. We invited him to slog through the POURING rain to have lunch with us, then we headed up to our hotel to check in. He came with us, but we parted ways when he discovered there were no rooms available. Anyways, we checked into our excellent hotel, the Nikko Park Lodge, and arranged dinner (Laura and I went for the "Zen" dinner - all vegan) and then decided to take a little walk around, defying the rain's attempt to keep us inside. It was really beautiful - the trees were all these amazing reds and yellows and there were leaves all over the very small street. I felt like we were walking in a poem.
We made a stop at the Nikko Beer Brewery for beer and snacks. I got overcharged for my food - they charged us twice for this sausage plate Claire and I shared. That story is important because when we tried to sort it out we couldn't prove anything because Claire had lost her receipt, but after we left they must've counted down the register and realized we were right because the owners of the place found us at our hotel and returned my money! It was amazing! We had several instances of money stupidity that weekend and not once was any money actually lost. It was amazing.
After we got back to the hotel, we all lay around for an hour or so reading and enjoying the electric blankets on our beds ( it was really freaking cold in Nikko) and then had dinner. After dinner Chels went back to the room to read and Laura, Claire and I lit out for the local onsen. We had a good time laying about in hot water and chatting for an hour or so. While we were there, it started SNOWING. Not hard enough to stick, but hard enough that we could see it and it got all over our jackets as we walked back. I was actually pretty excited despite the cold - snow is cool! When we got back to the hotel we sat around the wood-burning stove chit-chatting with some drunk Australians, then went to bed.
I'm gonna try and get day two of the Nikko trip up tomorrow and the story of my magical trip to Disney Sea on Friday. I wanted to at least have a record of what I've been up to.