Stacked Deck
Monday, May 15, 2006
日光 (Nikko)
I went to Nikko with Ets and despite horrendous weather at the start, it later turned out to be very lovely indeed.
This being my very first trip to Nikko, we took in all the quintessentially touristy spots and through an amazingly flukey twist of fate, managed to keep one step ahead of two very large tour groups consisting of very elderly women and very young schoolchildren.

First stop was Toshogu. Big temple-type place which is in no short supply in Japan.

After that was some world heritage bridge thing. Overrated if you ask me. Fair enough that it's a nice bridge over a nice river which does make for a rather picturesque setting but they actually charge a couple hundred yen just for the pleasure of walking across it.

Then we went to a temple with the 'famous' three monkeys.

Other various templey/shriney pics.

Here are a couple of Ets playing peek-a-boo with me.

Things looked considerably better once the weather improved.

We even made it up the mountain to see a couple of the famous waterfalls; The Kegon Falls and the Ryuzu (Dragon Head) Falls and accosted several innocent bystanders to take pictures for us. There was one old guy I asked but the two pictures he took were so appallingly awful that I wondered if he had actually handled a camera before.

Nikko is quite famous for ゆば (yuba), the film that forms on the top when you boil soya bean milk, so we felt that we had to have some for lunch.
ゆば丼 (yuba-don) - that stuff with mushrooms over rice. Nice enough but missing something ... meat!

Took other random pics whilst traipsing around.
Some colourful polished stones that some shops were selling.

Some very nice さくら (sakura)(?). Might be うめ(plum) blossoms.
And some other views from the side of the mountain.

Oh, check it out. We were pretty high up.

This shot was taken with some measure of risk.
I placed my camera on top of a banister thing and set the timer. In my haste to get in position, I dropped Ets' bottle of tea which you can see lying on the ground ^^;

Up the mountain, there was also a lake with all manner of hotels located nearby granting paying visitors rooms with spectacular views of said lake. Ets and I were content just admiring the view from the bus we took to see the falls.
Here's a nice wallpaper shot.

And here's Ets admiring the foliage.

And on a slight tangent, we went out for a beer with Jin and Tomoko and went to play some darts.
Here's a flukey round for you.
Yup! I really hit that. No lie! ^_^

For those who are curious, the Nikko pictures were taken mostly with my old Sony 707 with a Neutral Density filter which I think helps with the colours somewhat.
Written at 22:24 by Aeric.
0 comments
Saturday, May 06, 2006
The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of *BOOM BADA BOOM BADA BOOM*
Another Golden Week, another Ground Beat party and the same bunch of usual suspects.

Arrived at 1302 to beat (most of) the rush, took a cab to the nearest convenience store to acquire the essentials that were too heavy to drag from Tokyo (water and beer) aaaaaaaaand ...

Ta-dah!
The gates were only opening at 1400. So with nothing else to do, we sat ourselves down on the road, cracked open a beer and enjoyed the highly glorious weather.

When we were finally let in, we rushed to get the same spot we had last year and started getting settled down.


Behold the glory that is me reclining in unfolded-chair splendour.


Soooooo ... after that all was pitched and unfolded, I went to have a wee walk around. Some of the vendors were selling tie-dye tops, poi, and other little knick-knacks.


But by far the most interesting (and by interesting I mean "Holy "$%!!! ") thing I saw would be this:

Yeah. Those would be two (count 'em, TWO!!) snakes that look very dead but also very poisonous sitting in what must be 5 litres of ... stuff which I am led to believe that you actually drink.

After looking at all the strangeness around the site, sometimes on sale and other times on two legs (sometimes maybe both), we chilled out and waited for the party to get started.


Party pics!!!



Finally, the DJ I travelled 5 hours to see came on at 6 in the morning. I've been listening to Circadians for the past 3 weeks and I was soooooooo looking forward to this. Had to invade much personal space and probably offended a few toes but I made it to the front and THAT's where I stayed until 0730.

I give you the man himself! PROTOCULTURE!


I gotta say, it was brass monkeys that night in the mountains. Absolutely freezing when we sat down but not too bad when we were on the dance...dirt(?). So cold in fact that when I did go for a rest, I crawled inside my tent and zipped myself in my sleeping bag. Brrr!

Anyway, that was that. Great way to spend the hols and am going to Nikko next week with ets. Should be fun (^_^)v
Written at 17:26 by Aeric.
0 comments