One of my favorite places to go near Tokyo is Nikko. The trails and dense forests are such a wonderful contrast to the mania of the city. I prebooked tickets to the location and picked them up in the Tobu Tourist Office in Asakusa.
A word on prebuying tickets and tour offiices: OK first, the the day was fantastic. We really enjoyed the experience of seeing the temples and shrine and just being in the mountains for a time. The process of exchanging QR codes for tickets and buying vouchers for stuff is so interesting.
I used the app Klook to buy a set of tickets online. Klook is like many websites that aggregate these kinds of processes: buying tickets to do stuff. The information seems clear and straightforward….and yet, it wasn’t. The tickets I purchased, round trip to Nikko, were on local trains that would have taken three hours each way. The website does not and did not explain that one little anomaly. Now, if you’re headed to Nikko for a few days, awesome…save a little money and take the long way. However, if you’re going in Nikko in one day, you need the Tobu Limited Express. That ticket adds 3300 yen to the cost per person. I paid the price for what I was told was about an 1:30 hr trip that was actually a 1:50 hour trip each way. Nikko is not close.
OK…so what about Nikko? It’s a small town built for tourism. At the same time, the place is quaint with some Swiss/German architectural elements to suggest your in the Alps. After the train station, walk up the main street, Nikko-kando, and visit a shop or restaurant. The place is not bult up like Helen Georgia or Pigeon Forge Tennessee, and it is cute.
We walked our way up the hill to the park entrance. The Shinkyu bridge, a beautiful traditional bridge spanning the …river was worth the 300 yen to walk on and across it. From there we climbed the steep steps up to the Tokugawa era temples and shrines.
The forested slopes of the mountain were dotted with temples and their impressive designs were worth wandering through. The Chinese influence on the Tokugawa was evident everywhere from the statuary to the architecture. Notice the Confucian scholar- officials carved into the archway into Tokugawa Ieyasu’s tomb.
We walked our way up to the main temples, finding our way through the various torii gates and past and through numerous temples/shrines. Many were inspired by the views, the spaces, and the atmosphere of the place.
Once we were done at the temple, we walked our way back into town and to tge train station, stopping along the way for ice cream and pudding (!!) Nikko Pudding Tei offers a pudding lover’s joy. The pudding is packed in small glass jars. If you’re leaving town, they send you with a tiny ice bag to keep your pudding fresh for your journey home…at least for a few hours! The pudding is delicious and comes in many varieties. Most of the group grabbed a treat and feasted prior to boarding the return ride to Asakusa.
The day done we prepared for the trip to Kyoto and a bullet train ride.
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