Tanjoubi

October 24th is my birthday. That’s “tanjoubi,” (誕生日) in Japanese.

We decided to splurge a bit and book a resort in the town of Nikko, normally a 2-hour drive on the expressway from Tokyo. In Japan, expressways aren’t currently free. You enter as you would a freeway, except there’s a toll booth at the beginning of the onramp. You either take a ticket or go through a lane that automatically tags via a system called “ETC” (think FasTrak in the Bay Area). When you exit the expressway, you’re charged an amount relative to the distance you drove. This toll is used to repay the financing of the national expressway system and is apparently supposed to go away in 2050, once the debt for all of Japan’s expressways has been repaid. Until then, we’re stuck with the fee, and it’s not exactly cheap. I think from Tokyo to Nikko, it was about $20.

A bit after we got onto the expressway, we noticed Google Maps had a starkly different (read: worse) time estimate than our car’s GPS was reporting. We chalked it up to Google not knowing what the heck they’re doing in Japan, until we got stuck behind what turned out to be a 7-car pile-up that added an extra one and a half hours to the trip. Sorry for doubting you, Google.

One thing we noticed during the back-up (we had a lot of time to think) is that people in Japan don’t change lanes for the sake of changing lanes while in traffic. It’s a refreshing change, especially since it doesn’t make any sense to do it anyway. In fact, Japanese drivers seem nicer in general, with a general sense of awareness around moving out of the fast lane and actually using their turn signals! One thing we found odd, however, is that almost no one turns on their headlights when it’s raining over here – I guess it’s not the law like in California.

After the traffic subsided, we needed to make a brief break at a rest stop. A lot of these areas in Japan are much nicer than I’ve seen in the US. Their amenities range from small areas with restrooms and vending machines to large areas with convenience stores, small restaurants, and gas stations.

On our way up to the resort, we stopped at a shrine called Tōshō-gū. It’s a really popular tourist spot, confirmed by the number of buses in its parking lot. It’s a very ornately decorated shrine, and Seri spent a good amount of time taking photos of its various intricacies. We weren’t allowed inside the shrine with Einstein, so we had to limit our viewing to the exterior. Fortunately, you can find a lot of attention to detail doing just that, so we weren’t disappointed.

With the shrine behind us – and with rain beginning to fall as we headed back to the car – we made our way to the resort where we’d be for the next two nights. Hoshino has a number of resorts throughout Japan, and they do a great job of making you feel welcome. The resort in Kinugawa also boasts one dog friendly room with its own fenced outdoor area for Einstein to roam around in. The resort itself is actually detached from the parking lot/reception area, and you take a short funicular ride up to the grounds.

Our room was outfitted with various dog-related items (including hair removal rollers, pee pads, and anti-odor spray which uh… came in handy). It also had its own outdoor Japanese bathtub (“ofuro”), which was a nice way to relax after a longer than expected day of travel and sightseeing. After we settled in a bit, we headed to the dining hall to have dinner, which was a collection of small dishes, finishing with Japanese hot pot (“nabe”). For my dessert, because it was my birthday, they added a little edible chocolate flag with “omedetou” (おめでとうと), or “congratulations,” written on it.

We crashed almost immediately after finishing dinner and taking Einstein out one last time. The next morning would be a busy one, getting up at 5:15am to beat the rush to a hiking spot.