Four Day Weekend: Part 2 "Nikkou and the Rest"

Saturday ended up being a cleaning/laundry sort of day with nothing much happening.



But Sunday, oh Sunday! Lina, Marisa, and I went up to Nikkou in Tochigi prefecture. It's a beautiful little city up in the mountains with a ton of shrines and an awesome Buddhist temple. Taking the cheap trains, it takes about 2 hours to get there from Satte. Here's some links for the curious:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikkou
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikk%C5%8D_T%C5%8Dsh%C5%8D-g%C5%AB

Needless to say, there's a lot of history there. Also, a lot of good photo-ops:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2858972&id=2039525&ref=nf

For lunch, I paid 630 yen for a quiche (or more accurately, something that the menu referred to as a quiche) that had about a 4-inch diameter. Was it delicious? You bet, but I wasn't sated at all. So what do I do? I order a 420 yen apricot tart. Also delicious, but seriously? You know 2-bite brownies? Well, this was a 3-bite tart.

After getting ripped off, we bought souvenirs for our co-workers and took the train home.

During the final day of our summer break, I had a mission. I was going to go out and find my schools. I grabbed the route-marked map that Clayton had left me, got on my bike, and took off with Marisa on what turned out to be a whirlwind adventure all over Satte. Some of my schools are really out in the middle of nowhere, so I got to see the Tokyoite's version of the countryside. In my honest opinion, it's beautiful out in the Satte countryside. Biking along the rice paddies, sun beating on my face, cranes in flight, bike tires squeaking almost inaudibly--I had a great time. BUT--I failed in my mission. I only found 3 of my 5 schools before heading home for snacks.
Here are the pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2858971&id=2039525&ref=mf

Returning to the apartment, Marisa and I were joined by Joe, the three of us talking over snacks and drinks. Eventually, we took off to see if we could find an arcade, and we did! Right next to the movie theater. I played a little Taiko no Tatsujin, a Taiko drum simulator/rhythm game. Then, it was a little light shopping before returning home.