Northward We Go

Ashikaga and Utsunomiya

Leaving Tokyo was a relief because we were ready to get out of an awfully dank hostel. We traveled northwest to Ashikaga, which is about half of the way back to Nikko (where we spent our time before Tokyo). There wasn’t actually a lot to see here other than a few temples and Japan’s oldest school.

Ashikaga will actually be remembered as the town that gave us lots of hayfever. We had a pretty terrible week of allergies here, so it’s probably a good thing that the famous flower park didn’t have a lot in bloom and so we decided not to visit it.

After Ashikaga we transferred to Utsunomiya, where the weather got better — as did our allergies.

Near Utsunomiya is Tenkaisan Ōya Temple, a 1200 year old Buddhist site. The temple is significant because the Buddha inside is carved in the cliff wall and the building was constructed around it. This and several other carvings are quite impressive in their level of detail.

In the vicinity, there is a 27-meter tall statue of a Buddha in a park that used to be a stone quarry. There were some more sakura trees but, frustratingly, they weren’t quite in bloom.

The Oya Museum is just around the corner and was the highlight of the day. Formerly an enormous underground quarry, a third of the 20,000 square meter quarry is now open to the public.

The mine is absolutely enormous.

There are a few art installations inside and the quarry has been used for movies, commercials, weddings, and corporate events.

We couldn’t figure out why they decided to mine underground instead of digging from the surface (like an open pit mine), but it sure was impressive. It was also cold (around 4 degrees) since it is so deep underground.

In Utsunomiya, we were finally able to have a hanami (cherry blossom viewing party) at a nearby park. We weren’t the only ones, as many had brought tarps to picnic on, and there were many food vendors all around.

We were only able to enjoy it for a short time while eating okonomiyaki because my allergies got pretty bad, but it was still a lot of fun.