Shogun

Yesterday we had an amazing trip to the kabuki theatre, and saw a 2 hour play about the end of the Shogun era in Japan. We had English headphones which meant we could follow the action. The crowd yells out the acting house names of their favourite actors every now and then, like they are barracking at the football.

We arrived in Nikko last night, which is a small town about 2 hours from Tokyo on the Shinkansen, which is the very fast train. We are staying in a Ryokan with tatami mats on the floor, and are sleeping on futons. We had our first onsen last night, which is the traditional Japanese shared bath. It was a private one, so a good practice run for when we go to the shared public bath. Today we spent the morning around the Shogun shrine complex for which Nikko is famous. It felt very traditional, and we took heaps of photos. We will put some on the blog once technical difficulties are resolved. If only the renowned 3 wise monkeys on the shrine here could help us. We have run into a number of schoolkids who love to
yell hello at us and then giggle. Having a great time.