After a two hour train ride, Nikko!
And this if the first selfie of many to come, right outside the station
This girl insisted on bringing her transparent umbrella, showing off her ability to sightsee even with an umbrella above her head.
Deposited our bag at the guest house, the hosts asked our country and we said Singapore and he asked which town... We were like what? Then he started naming Ang Mo Kio, Orchard etc etc! So they stayed in Singapore for 4 years and stayed in Simei!
Took the Heritage bus with our All Nikko Pass to the Shinkyo, aka 神桥, and as you can see, it's raining! But water is still clear... Nice bridge, but cost 500Yen to cross. What a cheapskate deity
Then it's lunch time! At a very nice and atas place our host recommended
Even comes with a customized menu for the various course that's coming up
This is a random photo of the ultimate tourist accessory. Haha. No, we didn't eat this, but I realize all the food photos are in the camera shown here, so wait out for it to be posted somewhere!
Rain subsided and we carried on with the heritage trail! And at this point, probably from too much sitting, my lower back near my tail bone started to ache... And it ached real baddddd
Still, this girl didn't care and went on ahead!!!
Neh I'm just kidding, she wanted to stop, but I just garang-ed my way through... Here's a photo of the girl that kept me going! Literally and figuratively haha
And here we are at a five storey pagoda beside the famous Toshogu Shrine
More intrigued by the sidewalk decorations. Similar deco I saw in Kamakura had small statues in them; these were empty though
The phone camera started the selfie mode when I wanted to take a photo (cos I forgot to change it back) and we were not amused, or maybe kinda amused
Weird angle cos we didn't climb up the stairs to actually see it HAHA
Back here to change a bus; check out the girls in Kimono waiting to cross the bridge! And also, rain subsided!
Wandered into a cemetery after walking around the small lanes. I really like the peacefulness of a cemetery. And also the mysterious-feel; this is the closest we can get physically to the dead/underworld/unknown...
And then we reached the park! Spotted a curious tourist haha. Looks kinda lost... 妹妹要去哪里啊？叔叔带你去 XD
And it is at this point that I thought about what happened the previous time my back ached: Jingcheng cracked it for me and it miraculously worked! So I got Ms Blur to try it again... And miracles do happen twice! Felt like a dragon again...
And then a 30minute bus ride up to the mountain via a winding road. Lucky my back was "cured" before this arduous ride
And then we arrived at this place. Looks the same?
It's a lake! Lake Chuzenji to be exact.
Went to eat a super nice restaurant that only opens from 5-6pm, also courtesy of our host, and it was oishi-neh! Exploited our pass fully and headed back down as the sun began to set and the wind turned chilly...
Came back to our lovely room, settled down, then went out to get some food to chill in the tatami room
And this is us eating at the lobby before going up to our room for drinks! Then that's about it for Day 1 Nikko
Woke up pretty early the next morning cos the sky started to brighten up after 430am! Got some snacks for breakfast then took the same winding bus again up to a further point: Yomato Onsen!
Snacking at the bus stop. Even random places like this also got feel
At the final stop of the bus. Our smiles are pretty fake cos it was super cold!!! And when the wind blows, it's almost unbearable, we even contemplated taking the bus back down. But of course, we pressed on!!!
And though it's a stop for the Onsen, we didn't actually came for it; we came to trek! And the routes we chose were the relatively nicer/easier ones with views of waterfalls, marshland, and plateau of nice flowers blooming in season!
But the main theme of the hike is this: 小桥流水! (Though this one in the photo is a relatively large one haha)
And towards the end, a wide plateau with the mountains as a back drop.
Twisted the "untwistable" along the way though :( (picture here shows my new room in Tokyo which I'll update in another post!)
Finished the trekking at around noon, took the hour-long ride down, packed our bags, got directions to nice lunch place, and we're ready to go!
Final meal in Nikko and it was so simple yet so good!
And yep, the exterior looked the part as well, simply traditional
