hey all,
So tomorrow I return to my job.
My plan for yesterday was originally to head over to Kawagoe. This was historically called "Little Edo," for reasons that I don't quite get yet. One of the former ALT's recommended that I go there, so I did. But yesterday was rainy, and I had my adventure with my futon, so that never happened. And today was also rainy, but I decided I'd go over to Kawagoe any way. The city is somewhat famous for its kashi, traditional Japanese style sweets and candies, and I will be using some as o-miyage for my teachers. O-miyage are souvenir-type gifts that you give to others when you get back from a trip. I've also been told by other ALTs that they are very useful ice breakers to get your teachers to try to talk to you, or at least start being a little friendly.
So I made it over to Kawagoe very easily, since it is about as far as Tokyo from Omiya. It lies about dead West from Omiya, just 20 minutes away. Once in Kawagoe, I became disoriented and started out in the opposite direction that I needed to go in. I didn't have a map, and my normal navigational device (the Sun: as Bear Grylls/SurvivorMan as this sounds, I really do rely on the Sun to let me know if I'm heading East, West, or whatever. Even if a road or path twists and turns and you can't remember which way you came from, you can still tell what direction you're headed.) was disabled thanks to the cloudy/rainy weather.
I figured I was headed the wrong way, went back to the station, re-oriented, and again headed out in the wrong direction. The good news was that this time I was closer to right, but still not quite good enough. So back to the station it was. By then, I'd been walking around in the rain (with an umbrella, though), for at least 1.5 hours. At the station, I found the tourist office which I had missed the first two times, and picked up a map, and finally headed in the right direction.
The district that I was headed to was clearly marked on the road signs in Japanese and English with distances to various temples and shrines as well. The road that I took was a long line of shops: touristy places, as well as everyday type shops: book stores, game stores, pharmacies, grocery stores, etc. After another 30 minutes in the rain, I made it to the old town section, which is where the candy shops are. I stopped by 3 or 4, buying a few items at each one. For most of them, I have no idea what I bought, or even how traditional some of candies are.
I think when the weather is better, I'll head back and get some decent pictures of the shrines etc. I figured there was little point in getting dreary ones.
As for the weekend, I still plan on trying to see Nikko. I think I'll make reservations at a hotel for Friday and Saturday nights, see the sights on Saturday, and a little on Sunday, then come back Sunday. There are several temples there, some famous brigdes, some hot springs, plus Tokugawa Ieyasu's remains in a massive mausaleum. Right now, I'm getting conflicting weather reports for Saturday, so we'll see what they say tomorrow, then I'll think about making a reservation.
Cheers
