Today we headed north of Tokyo on a two-hour train ride to a small town called Nikko. Nikko is pretty much the exact opposite of Tokyo, small and quiet. At night you can really lose yourself in all the mountains, rivers, and overall beauty of the landscape here.

We are staying at a place called the Turtle Inn, in a Japanese style room, which includes straw mats on the floor and the smallest table in the world. I could spend months here; it is so relaxing and easy going here. Tonight we spent a lot of time in this small restaurant with its walls covered in currency from all over the world and business cards of weary travelers and restless souls, each with a unique perspective and time-stamp, each with the promise (and hope) of I will be back. The one I left behind says the same.

After eating the best meal of the trip and conversing with the locals, we made our way down the quiet streets along the Daiya River and across the Shinkyo Sacred Bridge, which is so beautifully illuminated at night, you don’t mind freezing just to watch it glow as the river rages below it. We came upon a place called Karaoke bar and wandered through the door.

Anyone familiar with Karaoke probably shares the same story of being in a bar, in front of a bunch of strangers belting out your favorite Celine Dion song. That’s not how they kick it here in Japan. Here you rent a room for an hour that has a couple of tables where you and your group of friends entertain each other. We were the only people in the place and after the very patient young girl behind the counter got us set up, we were well on our way to an hour worth of GNR, Mr. Big, Lenny Kravitz, and Celine Dion amongst others. I captured a VERY funny video of our take of the Eminem song Lose Yourself, which I may or may not post. I will have to run that by the rest of my group, I know some of us want to run for public office someday, and that would definitely be a roadblock.

One note is that we thought the rooms were soundproof, when in fact you can hear the music just fine right outside the door, and pretty good at the front door as well. I can only imagine how quickly the girl working there called her friends over to listen to our horrible attempts at some of the worst music ever created.

After the Karaoke fun, we returned to walk the side streets and alleyways, which always open up and turned into new places and things to see. We have a big day planned tomorrow of going to a place called Fall of Urami, which is a huge waterfall, and hitting some hot springs, as well as the never ending amounts of temples and museums that are in the area.

I will write more later, please forgive my misspellings and punctuation, these keyboards are different and don’t always allow you to type things the way you’d like. If you are ever planning a trip to Japan, make sure you spend at least one day here in Nikko, you will never forget it.