Edit page blog/2009/April

[wiki.git] / blog / 2009 / April

diff --git a/blog/2009/April b/blog/2009/April
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--- a/blog/2009/April
+++ b/blog/2009/April
@@ -1,5 +1,28 @@
 == Bernie's brain dump as of April 2009 ==
 
+=== April 29th: Back to Tokyo ===
+
+=== April 28th ===
+
+==== Guided tour ====
+
+Pictures of our day-long [[Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Nikko/waterfalls_tour]] are now online.
+Our friendly guide, the Buddhist monk whose name I forgot, answered many of our pending questions
+about Japanese traditions and religion.  Hiking through these sacred mountains and woods was an
+enjoyable experience.
+
+{{Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Nikko/waterfalls_tour/00038.jpg|maxwidth=800}}
+
+TODO: assemble a good video from all the scenes I took along the way
+
+==== Nikko Temple Area ====
+In the afternoon, we went to visit the [[Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Nikko/world_heritage_site]].
+One would expect to grow bored of Shinto and Buddhist temples after seeing many of them
+all over Japan, but visiting the Nikko temple area was once again an extraordinary experience.
+And I could finally spot a few [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miko]]s too!
+
+{{Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Nikko/world_heritage_site/00096.jpg|maxwidth=800}}
+
 === April 27th ===
 
 ==== Afternoon: travel to Nikko ====
@@ -8,7 +31,7 @@ Nikko is in an adjacent valley east of Nagano on the Japanese alps.  Unfortunate
 and busses connect them directly, so we had to take an expensive -- yet very fast -- Shinkansen
 detour all the way down to Saitama and then up again.
 
-Once at the station, we immediately realized that our was a good investment, after all.
+Once at the station, we immediately realized it was a good deal, after all.
 This mountain town overflows with temples, world heritage sites and statues of Buddah
 spread in an extremely beautiful natural environment with many great falls, ancient woods
 and hot springs where even wild monkeys take an onsen.
@@ -27,10 +50,13 @@ to silly gestures in order to get his stupid Vodka Martini the way he likes it.
 Tomorrow, of course after our morning yoga and vegan breakfast, we're going on a day long
 guided hiking tour with the monks, which sounds really cool.
 
+**UPDATE**: ouch!
+
+{{Pictures/vacation/japan_2009/Nikko/00026.jpg|Ouch!|maxwidth=640}}
 
 ==== Morning: Zenko-ji ====
 
-In the morning, we tried again to visit the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenk%C5%8D-ji]].
+In the morning, we tried again to visit the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenk%C5%8D-ji|Zenko-ji]].
 Even on a Monday, the queue was not much shorter.  A nice volunteer guide advised us that
 the pilgrims where queuing just to touch a wooden pole with an inscription on it that was
 right in front of the temple, and we could skip aside if we weren't interested.  So we did.