Day 10 in Japan

The beautiful misty mountains of Nikko.




The famous "See No Evil, Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil" monkeys at Toshogu in Nikko.




A dragon adorns the top of one of the shrines at Toshogu in Nikko.




Here's Mommy at the onsen.


FRIDAY, MAY 30

At 9 a.m., Tsune-chan, Hiromi and Yuichi show up in a 10-passenger Toyota van to take us to Nasu and Nikko.

It's a three-hour drive to that area where we have a reservation to stay an an onsen or Japanese spa.

Once we get our luggage in the van and lock up the house, we're on our way.

Toll roads are foreign to us in this part of Georgia. If you live in Atlanta and have to go on Georgia 400, you pay a toll to drive on that highway.

In Florida, you get used to throwing change into toll booths. Same in other states.

But in Japan, on the major highways, it seems every mile or so, you pay a toll. And it's not a quarter. It's anywhere from the equivalent to $3 and up. It adds up.

Like on Florida's Turnpike, there are service plazas in Japan. That's where you can stop to go to the bathroom, get something to eat, buy stuff and gas up your car.

At the first one, Tomobe, Tsune-chan announced to us that we had 10 minutes.

We junped out of the car and started exploring.

I goofed up. When we were in the bathroom, I took my mother's purse with me.

It wasn't until she got ready to pay that there was no purse. I went to the bathroom and it wasn't there. While I was in the bathroom, searching for her purse, her name was called on the intercom. Someone had found it and took it to the custoner service desk. The entire purse was intact.

Thank goodness! I would never hear the end of it if her passport was gone.

We bought what we had chosen and got back in the van.

No natter what Tsune-chan said, we spent at least 30 minutes there.

We got to Nikko, which is famous for its hot springs and monkeys, right at lunch time. Tsune-chan and Hiromi had made reservations at a restaurant that specialized in yuba. Yuba is a form of tofu. This meal may just be the best one I had in Japan in the three weeks we were there. It's amazing what a skilled chef can do with tofu!

Jessica, being a vegan, absolutely loved it. But so did everyone else. Well, except maybe Fred, whose comment at practically every meal was "Where's the meat?"

It was a drizzly kind of day. Not exactly raining, but a little more than misty.

It was actually very beautiful.

After lunch, we went to Toshogu, the famous shrine at Nikko that features the "see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil" monkey carvings.

Our mother, who had quadruple bypass surgery last July, isn't moving as well as she used to. So we helped her climb the stairs as far as she wanted to go. She actually waited for us under a shelter while we explored the various shrines that dated back centuries.

After we got our fill of the shrine, we got back in the van and went to Nasu, a small town where there are various hot springs spas.

Tsune-chan and Hiromi found us a very nice one. When we checked in, we were each given a cotton kimono to wear.

This was very strange, but the rooms are not coed. Weird, huh?

So my mother, Hiromi and I were in one room; Cheryl, Jessica and Patty were in another and Fred, Tsune-chan, John and Yuichi were in a third room.

As soon as we got in our room and got unpacked, Mommy, Hiromi and I headed to the hot springs. Like in a private home, there is an area where you scrub off the dirt on your body and rinse off. Then you soak in the hot water. Yes, you're naked in front of all the other women. There's a soaking tub and a whirlpool bath inside. Outside, there's another huge tub made of stone.

It was so relaxing.

There's a separate bath for men.

After you dry off, you get in your cotton kimono.

And then go to dinner. And what a dinner it was.

My camera died, so I don't have photos, but I'm getting discs from Patty and Cheryl, who do have photos from dinner.

After dinner, Mommy, Hiromi and I went to bed.

The others stayed up.

Patty, Cheryl and Jessica went to take a bath; John, Tsune-chan and Yuichi did, too. Fred refused to be naked in front of other men, so he did not bathe.

The rooms had no shower facilities because the hotelier expect people to use the public bath.

The others later met and played ping pong with other people staying there.

Fred played against a woman, who he said was a former pro. He claims to have beaten her. And it turns out that Tsune-chan was a ping pong champ himself in middle and high school.

We had no idea that's what they were doing until the next day.