木曜日の朝9時、自宅を出発。平日だったので都内の電車は通勤途中の人ばかり。乗り換えついでに北千住駅で
日光ミニフリーパスを購入。東武鉄道とバスが乗り放題に。歩き回るはずの旅が、バスに乗りまくり。
滝1: 竜頭の滝。
竜頭之茶屋が隣りに（というか、お茶屋＋オミヤゲ屋の敷地内で滝を眺める感じ）あるので名物の施無畏（せむい）団子を注文。出て来た団子の山を見て、１人一皿は絶対にムリ！と騒いでおきながら、結局完食。そしてバス停近くでサル発見。野生ざる、コワイっ！
バスで湯元温泉へ。見物もせずに
はるにれの湯へ。お湯は
入浴剤なしでも湯はしっかりと白濁。古い建物内で風呂上がりに缶ビールで一息入れる。
滝2: 湯滝。竜頭の滝よりもずっと迫力があり、まわりの大自然にも癒される。マイナス・イオン効果？
泊まった宿は目の前が中禅寺湖、後ろには男体山。部屋の窓を開けると一面に中禅寺湖。
On Thursday, we left home at 9am. The Tokyo trains were full of office people. To transfer trains at Kita-Senju, we bought
Nikko Mini Free Pass which gave us unlimited usage of selected Tobu trains/buses in the Nikko area.
Waterfall #1: The Ryuzu waterfall. We sat in the 'Ryuzu no Chaya' tea house and ate their Semui Dango (sweet rice cake). We thought we wouldn't be able to finish the dango, but it wasn't so difficult. There was a monkey near the bus stop. I've heard about them on TV news, and I was scared that it might attack us!
We went to the Yumoto Onsen (Yumoto Hot Spring) area by bus, took a hot bath at the very tiny and old
Harunire Hot Spring. The hot water was white but
without additives! Enjoyed a can of beer in the old building.
Waterfall #2: The Yutaki waterfall. It was much more dynamic compared to the Ryuzu waterfall. I also liked the amazing nature around this area. Nice feeling. A negative ion therapy?
The
place we stayed at was by Lake Chuzenji, at the foot of Mount Nantai. From our window we had a great view of the lake.
It seems like Japanese has a much greater capacity for this kind of word/script play? Kanji adds an additional dimension which Roman-based languages can't match.
Well, I guess we have things like 'There's no "i" in "team"', but it's somehow not quite as poetic.