Monkey's paradise

We have been to Nikko (in Tochigi prefecture) on the 6th and 7th with Julien by train. We took an express train from Asakusa and arrived at Tobu Nikko station after 2 hours. We were late in Nikko as we couldn't go sightseeing when we arrived (-_-;) Most of the temples are closed at 4pm, so be careful if you go to Nikko by one day trip, you can not see anything after 4pm! :P We decided to stay in Nikko so we went directly to Ryokan(japanese hotel) on foot. The ryokan looked old, and we heard some strange sounds during we stayed in there (>_<) Kowaaaaaiii!! But actually ryokan was good except that because it was cheap(5,400yen /1 person), room was not so small, and we could take an onsen(hot spring)! It was really good :) We had dinner in a small Izakaya. I think this izakaya is for foreigners because we could see a lot of business or students cards, messages, pictures, money...etc. on the wall which those people left. Foods are typical japanese food like yakitori, tsukune(chicken meat balls), yakisoba, gyoza, and rice! Actually it was good especially gyoza, oishii desu! :P > Madame of Izakaya she was funny and nice. She can speak some English also :) It's different from Izakaya where I usually go but it was ok. It looked like "family izakaya". There was a boy who is a son of waitress, he was reading a book at the same table during we were having dinner for example...
We woke up early next moring and we went to see Toshogu shrine and other shrines also. Actually it was the first time to visit those shrines for me, I've never visited there and it's been a long time since I came to Nikko. So it was good to see :) We saw students who came to Nikko for school trip. Sorry for Julien as they didn't offer to take a picture with him :P But they greeted us in Japanese, English, and French. (I guess their teacher forced them to greet when they meet someone on the way...)
One of the interesting stuff in the Toshogu shrine, it is called "鳴竜(Nakiryu)". There is a ceiling which the dragon was drawn, and when the guy clapped the rhythm woods under the head of dragon, the ceiling and floor resonate and you can hear the sounds like a tinkle of a bell. And people said it sounds like dragon's cry, that's why it's called Nakiryu(crying dragon).

We were supposed to see monkeys in Nikko. (yes, we were supposed to see!) Because Nikko is a famous place where you can see a lot of monkeys on a road in the mountain. Unfortunately we couldn't see them at all. Zannen desu!