Nikko - Edo Wonderland - Back to Atsugi

 John and I started out the day early with a trip to the Onsen and a wonderful hot spring bath.  Very relaxing...kept us warm a good deal of the morning.  Then met up with Jill and the boys at the river.  They were doing stick races to see which sticks could make it under the bridge and down over the falls.  Fun time!

 

 Then back to the Turtle Inn Annex to a wonderful breakfast of eggs, fruit and very fat toast with Jam.  Real coffee this morning which was very tasty.  The we packed up and Dave pulled the car around so we could get our stuff in without getting it to wet as we had more showers this morning.  We checked out and headed to

 Edo Wonderland - Nikko Edomura.  It's a living history experience of the Edo period in Japan.  It reinacts the life back in the days of the Shogun period from 1603-1887.  Edo had the largest population of any metropolis in the world and was highly advanced ecologically.  Unfortunately, many areas weren't open and not performing because of the rain..

downpours at some points.  But, the indoor shows went on and were quite incredible displays of the talents of the Ninja.  The first one was outstanding!  Then we wandered through the village.

 The boys tried out their archery skills...

 Townspeople walked through the rain with ease...

 and the buildings were very nicely done!

 Lots of Ninjas and others around to keep you on your toes.

 The cherries were still stunning...even with dark skies.

After several hours and seeing most of the indoor shows, we headed toward home.  Jill and I hopped into a 7-11 to pick up lunch.  A much more extensive take along selection than in the US. 

We listened to 4 Box Car Children stories on our trip

up and back.  They were quite intriguing to Colin...

 while Grandpa....

 and Ryan caught some zzzz's.

We had a safe trip home with sunshine the last half of the journey.  We took a very interesting shortcut for the last 20 minutes.  Dave ran to the Commissary and picked up dinner - Hamburgers!  Yummy to have good American comfort food after all our great Japanese food this week!  What a fun Nikko weekend!  Thanks Jill and Dave!!!