*Sorry it has been awhile I video anything and I forgot to put it in landscape mode! – Claire*
Welcome welcome, welcome to the land of the rising sun. The origin of manga and cute imaginary characters. Welcome to ramen country (although ramen is technically a Chinese dish but WHO CARES!), Sushi land, juicy katsu dons and savoury takoyaki. Sweet taiyaki, chewy daifuku and dango. All the written sound effects and exaggerated expressions and super polite people who might just be criticizing how your behavior is incorrect for the situation under their breaths but I really don’t care, THEY ARE SUPER POLITE! Oh how I love this country I do not wish to leave…
Okay let me chill, *deep breaths* gotta compose myself here. Let’s try again.
Hi people, welcome (back) to Japan. Yes. It’s open, since October. So we flew there on a whim in November. Just so happened that I already took a week’s leave in that month, just so happened that (I really didn’t plan to travel) Claire can take off anytime she wants. Well, in theory.. Her job offers her that flexibility, but it comes with a cost, no use talking about that anyways. The point is, yes, we went to Japan. Landed in Tokyo, then straight to Nikko in Tochigi prefecture.
We kinda decided a week before our trip so I hastily piece together an itinerary for a 3 nights’ stay in the last available ryokan we can afford in Nikko-Shi and 2 nights stay in Ueno, Tokyo. It’s autumn, my favourite season, and I’m excited to see and possibly preserve more maple leaves in a tiny note book just like 9 years ago, when we first visited this amaaazing country.
I did write about Nikko 9 years ago, buried somewhere in this blog, how nostalgic. Since my noob days, I’ve been hoping to return to Nikko and stay for more days to fully explore this beautiful place. But alas, a last minute plan like this, this is kinda the best I can plan for, so here goes.
Upon our arrival, we took Keisei Skyaccess line direct to Toei-Asakusa station, where we took a short 5mins walk to Tobu-Asakusa station. Yeah there are many “Asakusa” stations but they are all very close to each other.
We bought the Nikko All Area Pass at Tobu-Asakusa station. The pass only covers basic train fare between Asakusa and Nikko. So we need to pay the limited express fare to take the Spacia series train which connects us to Tobu-Nikko station directly. Train took slightly less than 2 hours
We arrived at Nikko around noon, we decided to walk the 1.4km to our hotel, thinking that we were seated the whole time since last night (flight+train). But I forgot how hilly this place was, so it was a 1.4km climb up a gentle slope with our luggages in tow…
Nikko Tokinoyuu
We stayed at Nikko Tokinoyuu (日光 季の遊) ryokan. It was an awesome stay, we stayed in a 8 tatami room with a nice balcony-like area. Super spacious for the money spent, well some people might complain about the age of the interior, I find it really charming.
The staff were really nice to us, they had a translator device ready to help us understand each other, no worries on communication here.
Shinkyo (神橋）
After spending some time slacking on tatami in our room, we decided to visit Shinkyo, which was just opposite our ryokan. The attraction closes at 4pm, we arrived at 3.50pm, and I made a rash decision to buy the tickets.. its a small place, so I basically dragged Claire in and hastily took some photos and left.
Search for Konbini (convenience store)
We explored the vicinity a little more before dinner, I was looking around for a konbini but soon realised that there were none. Well there are some small local grocery stores, but I’m so used to the Lawsons, Family Marts and 7-11s..
A quick search shows one Family Mart 1km away from our ryokan, so we walked there to exercise before dinner. What’s for dinner? Tabao konbini bentos of course.
Ended the day sleeping on futons.
Good night
