I’m an admirer of the japanese culture, and as most friends know, made a 22-day trip couple of years ago along with not less than 7 relatives! xD
A trip which made me decide to move to Japan at some point in my lifetime.

Been planning on doing this in a while now, but finally I gathered the courage to select and share some of the photos taken on my trip, by 3 amateur photographers: Me, my cousin and my uncle!

After a relaxing stay at the Onsen, our next destination on our trip was Nikko Edo Mura, or Edo Wonderland.

Edo Mura is a reproduction of what Tokyo used to be in ancient Japanese history.
From 1457, when it was still a very small fishing village, ’till 1868 (the end of the shogunate era), Tokyo was called Edo.

It’s an interesting mix of historical setting with museum and amusement park. The attractions range from the city reproduction itself (with schools, jails, blacksmith, common houses and other types of buildings) to theaters with ninja shows, a parade with geishas and the “shogun daughter” mixed with some typical amusement park attractions (like a spooky house) and lots of theaters and theatric presentations.

From time to time you get “parades” just like this one… if I’m not mistaken, it had something to do with the shogun or some important family daughter, that would walk the streets of Edo with servants.
One of the interesting parts of Edo Mura and lots of other japanese points of interest is the mix of culture, history along with the entertainment part. Ends up making people interested in the history and culture, including kids.

The village is also used as setting to movie scenarios, and it’s also possible to rent kimonos to wear while visiting the park… something probably interesting to see on holiday season. xD

We spent a full afternoon there, had some delicious udon meal, got impressed by the lake they have inside the park…

…completely filled with koi (carps) and by the end of the visit we watched a ninja theater show which was great.

(A pic of our gang, along with two cast members of the show. Me is the one with yellow t-shirt)

While I was researching about Edo Mura, it seems there’s tons of new interesting attractions. So it’s a really interesting place to visit. I’d recommend to save a couple of days to visit an onsen and Nikko Edo Mura while visiting Japan.

(After leaving the park and getting to the train station. It’s specially interesting for anime fans because the train stations will probably remind you of some animes… they are exactly as portrayed!)

And this concludes this edition of our Japan Trip!

Bonus: Here’s a very interesting Colored Photochrom composition taken in 1865/1866 of Edo. Kinda reminds of some historical setting scenarios in anime, doesn’t it? Kinda like Bleach’s Soul Society?

Taken from the Wikipedia entry for Edo, Felice Beato is the author of the photos.