Day 15 - Tokyo to Nikko: Edo Butlins
Not much sleep last night due our room being next to Tokyo’s version of the South Circular at rush hours on steroids and very loud engines. Another annoying jazz soundtrack to a cup of cornflakes then we requested to change rooms. Subwayed all the Asakusa for the Nikko train, the same place we almost started our Tokyo tourist trail. Weather less grim but our train was the scummiest yet.
Passed the station which would have got a quicker route to Nikko Edo-mura (Wonderland) so decided to push on to Nikko for the temple we wanted to see. Bought a round trip bus pass for 500 Yen and was told to use bus-stop 3 for 11:56am. Nothing turned up and realised too late that there another bus-stop 3 further up the road. Fu£kake! With the prospect of waiting upto an hour for the next bus and not wanting to risk missing the ninja show, we rushed back to the train station to get back to the Edo Mura. More language confusion with types of trains and somehow getting on to a local train as we weren’t willing to wait another 40 minutes and transferring to another train (and a lot of train employees saying conflicting info) we got charged a fee of 500 Yen each. At the end of the train journey we still had to get a bus. Local bus information was all in Japanese text but with a little guess work and a hopeful feeling we finally made it about 5 hours leaving Tokyo.
Entry was quite expensive at around £22 so expectations were a little high then quickly deflated with the first entry to a ninja ghost house. A run-down fairground/seaside ghost house was as good as it got. The Edo village had seen better days with the character actors hardly arsed to act up. Another ‘scary’ house had a better result but the ticket value was still under scrutiny. A quick bow’n’arrow turn was a laugh then we saw our first live show of Japanese Water Magic which is really old according to the English pamphlet. Turned out to be good fun to watch though front row seat (no actual seats, just sitting on the floor with shoes in a plastic bag provided) were the splash seats. Before we entered we were given a single piece of square shaped paper and had no idea what to do with it. After the performance it turned out to be coin wraps to ‘tip’ the actors by throwing it to the stage. More wandering revealed a small history lesson of Edo Japan with some nasty torture scenes. Second live show was a drama nicely acted but had no idea what it was about. The samurai sword sound effects were class though. A quick look at the ‘film set’ was deserted and crap basically. Today must have been a very quiet day and got paranoid they would cancel the ninja show due to a poor turn-out.
The ticket value was to get some well needed boost with the Ninja show. Some great rock guitar music and echo effect narrator started off a sort of ninja dance routine under some spot lights. The lights went out and a normal Edo geezer comes out with a lamp pretending to keep watch. He hears a bird sound and turns round quickly suspecting something amiss. He calls out to the darkness to make themselves known. Another distraction and the guy’s paranoia kicks in. “Where are you pesky Ninja??!!” he shouts or that’s what I imagined. All of a sudden his throat is cut and the ninja crew clean up the body and disguise themselves.
Meanwhile back at the ninja residence another drama unfolds of sibling rivalry mafia style. The stage was transformed into a forest and mountain cave scene and the characters talked a bit then more action with techno, hip-hop to almost ‘Starsky and Hutch’ guitar music. The finale was a sword fight with the classic, well timed ker-ching sword noises then King of the Ninjas got stabbed. Highly entertaining stuff.
Taxi was used to avoid the bus and train combo to the station we needed then settled in for the 2 hour journey back to Tokyo. When we got back we went looking for Japan’s fast food chain Mos Burger in Roppongi. Got fed up with the hassling door men asking to visit their club/bar whatever so went to Shibuya. Burger was a bit crap and very messy. Went to Starbucks which over looked the crossing and lucky to get a window seat though we were sternly warned that photography was not allowed strangely.
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Passed the station which would have got a quicker route to Nikko Edo-mura (Wonderland) so decided to push on to Nikko for the temple we wanted to see. Bought a round trip bus pass for 500 Yen and was told to use bus-stop 3 for 11:56am. Nothing turned up and realised too late that there another bus-stop 3 further up the road. Fu£kake! With the prospect of waiting upto an hour for the next bus and not wanting to risk missing the ninja show, we rushed back to the train station to get back to the Edo Mura. More language confusion with types of trains and somehow getting on to a local train as we weren’t willing to wait another 40 minutes and transferring to another train (and a lot of train employees saying conflicting info) we got charged a fee of 500 Yen each. At the end of the train journey we still had to get a bus. Local bus information was all in Japanese text but with a little guess work and a hopeful feeling we finally made it about 5 hours leaving Tokyo.
Entry was quite expensive at around £22 so expectations were a little high then quickly deflated with the first entry to a ninja ghost house. A run-down fairground/seaside ghost house was as good as it got. The Edo village had seen better days with the character actors hardly arsed to act up. Another ‘scary’ house had a better result but the ticket value was still under scrutiny. A quick bow’n’arrow turn was a laugh then we saw our first live show of Japanese Water Magic which is really old according to the English pamphlet. Turned out to be good fun to watch though front row seat (no actual seats, just sitting on the floor with shoes in a plastic bag provided) were the splash seats. Before we entered we were given a single piece of square shaped paper and had no idea what to do with it. After the performance it turned out to be coin wraps to ‘tip’ the actors by throwing it to the stage. More wandering revealed a small history lesson of Edo Japan with some nasty torture scenes. Second live show was a drama nicely acted but had no idea what it was about. The samurai sword sound effects were class though. A quick look at the ‘film set’ was deserted and crap basically. Today must have been a very quiet day and got paranoid they would cancel the ninja show due to a poor turn-out.
The ticket value was to get some well needed boost with the Ninja show. Some great rock guitar music and echo effect narrator started off a sort of ninja dance routine under some spot lights. The lights went out and a normal Edo geezer comes out with a lamp pretending to keep watch. He hears a bird sound and turns round quickly suspecting something amiss. He calls out to the darkness to make themselves known. Another distraction and the guy’s paranoia kicks in. “Where are you pesky Ninja??!!” he shouts or that’s what I imagined. All of a sudden his throat is cut and the ninja crew clean up the body and disguise themselves.
Meanwhile back at the ninja residence another drama unfolds of sibling rivalry mafia style. The stage was transformed into a forest and mountain cave scene and the characters talked a bit then more action with techno, hip-hop to almost ‘Starsky and Hutch’ guitar music. The finale was a sword fight with the classic, well timed ker-ching sword noises then King of the Ninjas got stabbed. Highly entertaining stuff.
Taxi was used to avoid the bus and train combo to the station we needed then settled in for the 2 hour journey back to Tokyo. When we got back we went looking for Japan’s fast food chain Mos Burger in Roppongi. Got fed up with the hassling door men asking to visit their club/bar whatever so went to Shibuya. Burger was a bit crap and very messy. Went to Starbucks which over looked the crossing and lucky to get a window seat though we were sternly warned that photography was not allowed strangely.
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