江戸村（Edo Mura) Edo Wonderland

While my parents were visiting, we had a chance to visit Nikko with my mom's cousin, Tatsuru. Nikko is a little bit north of Tokyo, about two hours or so. I say or so because on the way there we took the Shinkansen (bullet train!) so the ride in was easy, breezy, and fast. Our return trip was a little bit longer because we took a private rail home to avoid the crowds of people. (For future reference, if you are visiting Japan during お正月 New Years, be prepared to brace yourself for the crowds of people visiting shrines during the first week of January for 初詣hatsumoude.) Edo Mura was really cool if you're interested in Japanese history, I'd describe it as kind of a renaissance fair for Japan. It is set up like an old Edo Village and there are reenactments and people who don't break character. Here's the website in case anyone is planning a trip to Japan:- http://www.edowonderland.net/  it's in Japanese but there is a translated page for English!

It says Edo Wonderland, but 江戸村（Edo Mura) means Edo Village..

Japanese Calligraphy 書道(shodou)

This was the entrance to a Ninja House. It was like you're basic house of mirrors. There were trick doors, dark corridors, a room of mirrors, etc. Tatsuru told us that when he visited Edo Mura with his parents (my mom's aunt and uncle) his dad couldn't figure out where the door was in one of the rooms so he just turned himself around and came out the entrance. We managed to make it through the whole thing without any struggles this time though.

Geta - old style shoes. Check out the ones on the bottom though, don't they look like something you might see Lady Gaga sporting?

Since we were north of Tokyo, it was so cold! There wasn't any snow on the ground but you could see snow capped mountains. Also, the fake lake in Edo Village was partially frozen. 

Target practice

These buckets were filled with water and used to put out fires. 

Dad, Mom, and Tatsuru waiting in line for some お汁粉(o-shiruko). It's a sweet red bean soup, may or may not contain chunks of mochi (rice paste cake) in it. 

The guy was good, he didn't break character!

Pampers and her cousin enjoying their snack of お汁粉

pretty fabrics!

There were lots of food stalls in one area that were supposed to represent the 下町(shita-machi) downtown areas of the Edo Village.

This is a statue of the New Years Dragon

One of the shows we watched was about an 花魁(oiran). Oiran were courtesans. The show was pretty entertaining because they picked a poor man from the audience to play the role of her guest. It was all in ancient-y Japanese so it was even more difficult to understand. It was fun though, and the emcee was very entertaining, his face was very expressive.