My cousins and I visit the oldest university in Japan, on top of doing many stupid things.

Dzaid and I were (and still are) having our autumn hols, and Daim had his silver week holiday. It was high time that the 3 of us went on a holiday again. After browsing through many destinations in Wiki Travel, we decided to go for a simple day-trip to Ashikaga. It was the cheapest too!

It was a one-hour train trip from Nippori station in Tokyo.

Once we arrived, we searched for the nearest map. Such a happy place, this Ashikaga.

Ah, so the winds are blowing west today. Gotta change my schedule then.

We stopped at Ashikaga-shi instead of Ashikaga station, which is just a bridge away.

Nothing like letting the river listen to your trumpet.

I love rivers in Tokyo. The surroundings give that sense of peace and serenity.

Or so I thought.

Ok enough toying around. It’s time to cross the bridge.

But not till I send my photo to Facebook!

Ashikaga is a nice quiet little town.

A little too quiet. A tourist destination without the tourists? What’s going on?!

Oh yes, the usual mirror camwhoring session.

Dzaid scares me sometimes.

Recommended by many travel sites. You can drink their own house blend while enjoying the nice cozy library-like atmosphere. We didn’t enter for that reason exactly. My cousins and I, quiet? Hah! Cameras are not allowed either :(

My mom’s dream car.

Did I mention that I like taking pictures of roads? :3

While in Tokyo, make sure you capture the magnificence of the electric pole.

After much walking, we stumbled upon this old train carriage in front of Ashikaga station.

EDIT: Whoops it’s actually a locomotive hehe. Thanks to tymmur of figure.fm for the detailed writeup! Here’s the excerpt of his comment there:

I noticed one flaw though (not a serious one). In your interesting trip to Ashikaga you saw an old train “carriage”. It’s actually more like an old freight locomotive (stats). This makes it more interesting as it’s usually out of reach for regular people. Did you happen to get a look inside?

Funny thing is that Danny once saw a lone “carriage”, which turned out to be an EF81 (further down the page). This makes me wonder how often people see locomotives without realising they are a whole different world compared to the usual electrified carriages. Carriages has windows for passengers and are relatively light, meaning they have 4 wheels in each end (best stability). If something has more wheels than that, then it’s heavy and (in this case 96 tons) and it has to be something else. After all even fat passengers can’t make a carriage that heavy ^^

Oh for the record: the locomotive power is 2550 kW, which is 3465 horsepower (I suspect that should be read as +- something). This is in other words quite powerful and I will be sure to take a look if I’m in the area… which I have no plans for at the moment :/

This is the start of a thematic series of pictures initiated by Dzaid. See if you can figure out what the theme is (my face is a good clue… I think).

Another recommendation by Wiki Travel, and this time we did go in. This is Tonkatsu Sakae, an eatery that obtained some fine-dining club seal of approval. They use only the lean parts of the animal, so you’re assured that you’ll get a healthy meal.

And this is what we had for lunch, Chicken Katsu Don. Frankly I wasn’t too impressed, but I was too hungry to notice.

Then back to stupid poses. Welcome to the Bell and Rose series! See if you can guess what characters we’re trying to portray, of course they have to do with Bell (left) and Rose (right). Seriously most of them deserve everyone’s facepalm, but try and guess anyway :P

Hint for this picture: Cartoon character and fighting game character.

Hint: Inventor and musician.

Hint: Old sitcom series and a hedgehog with a hammer.

Continuing the theme initiated by Dzaid.

Please forward all questions to him. I’m too lazy to explain lol

This is Ashikaga Gakko, the oldest university in Japan. It was established in the 1400s by a deputy shogun. Now it’s just a National Historic Site. That means you gotta pay to enter :(

At least you pay for what you see, coz the area was so beautifully landscaped!

Why is it that when Dzaid poses like this, it looks like a Japanese drama poster…

But when I pose, it looks like some Indian movie.

The main building showcased the main halls where the students lived their lives.

And this is the classroom. Can’t blame the students for sleeping during class.

Surrounding the building was a beautiful Japanese garden.

No fair! My university had car parks, elevators and businessmen in ties.

We had a good chat with Satan.

Others see it as a miniature model. We see it as a battlefield.

Poor guy, he must have found the whole thing boring.

The delinquent.

The shy type.

The nerd.

Don’t worry, even those who play Shenmue won’t know what on earth this picture is about.

We were not in the mood for Mexican food (apparently it’s the opposite for the Mexican dance) but this is another recommendation by Japan travelers, Southwest Paradise.

We had some nice gelato in Romano, another great recommendation by Wiki Travel. Try the cheesecake flavour, it’s no surprise that it’s the most popular one here!

To our disappointment, our next venue was under some restoration process. This is what was left of Bannaji temple, a very very old temple dating from the 1200s.

We did the next best thing: go to the nearby playground! Say, doesn’t this bunker remind you of a Shadow of Colossus battle?

Come kids, play with me!

Dunno what these are.

Let’s giddyup!

This is so ghey beyond words.

And so the trip ends with 3 losers riding something that was obviously not built for their size.