We headed to Nikko for a day trip from Tokyo. Honestly, I am having mixed feelings about the trip. I think if you really want to explore this place, you’d need two days to do it, but on the other hand, it is also a trip that could easily wait for the retirement days in my opinion.

We activated and used our JR pass to get to Nikko from Ueno station in Tokyo and tried out our first shinkansen. This is an option only interesting to JR Pass holders, since it is quite expensive otherwise, and there are other ways of getting to Nikko. You gotta love Japanese trains though, especially if you’re from Slovenia since they are all our trains are not – fast, clean, comfortable, with lots of legroom and more. Shinkansen takes you from Ueno station to Utsunomiya station, where you change to a local train to Nikko with unreserved seating. We didn’t have any issues getting a sit, but there were no crowds.

Nikko is a town I would describe as a city living only for the tourists. When you come to the train station, there is a very neatly organized visitor center – for the travelers who are not prepared (as we were not). If you are going to Nikko I would suggest you at least have a sort of a plan or a list of things you want to see before arriving there.

There are a few different bus passes that cover Nikko and traveling around it and depending on what you want to see, you have to choose the right one for yourself. My plan was quite ambitious, as always. Nevermind, in the end, I ended up falling asleep on the train on the way back to Tokyo after the less ambitious version of the plan. But in theory, it is kind of difficult for me to take it easy here, as I want to see everything, preferably all in one day. 😀

After careful consideration, we decided to do Kirifuri Waterfall and Nikko Shrines, which are all clustered in one area. Both of these are covered by a bus pass which costs 600 yen and is valid for a day. You can also walk to the shrines through the main street of Nikko if you’re up for it – we were not. 🙂 The bus stops at Shinkyo bridge which is kind of an entrance to Nikko’s World Heritage Site. For the lazier ones – one stop of the bus is also directly at the temples. PS: Bridge is closed after 4 pm, so if you want to walk across it, do it earlier. Same goes for most of the restaurants on the main street.

So, our first stop of the day was the Kirifuri Waterfall. The bus stop is around 10 mins of an easy walk to the waterfall. No big deal really, even if you are not that fit. The waterfall is quite high, but coming from Slovenia I am not that impressed by waterfalls – aside from the ones I saw in Yosemite National Park. We have so many beautiful ones in Slovenia that we’re a bit spoiled. My mood was on a downward spiral so Žiga decided lunch would be a good investment in our relationship and his safety. 😀

We wanted to try Nikko’s famous Soba noodles with Yuba. It is a food made from skin that forms on top of soy milk when it gets heated. You can buy it in all sorts of shapes and sizes, also as a souvenir. The most common use is in a bowl of hot noodles – yuba ramen, yuba soba and yuba udon. You can find it deep-fried, in sushi, dumplings, burgers, curry, jelly etc. It tastes ok, but not on my top favorite list of Japanese food. The fried thingy I had for dessert, with sweet bean paste inside and a bit salty on top though – very good. Would definitely have a few more.

Our next stop – Nikko Shrines. Early morning we had and lunch were both making us a bit sleepy, so we kind of wandered around the temples without a purpose. Since there is an admission fee for all of them, we chose the most expensive one (1300 yen) – the Toshogu Shrine and we were not disappointed. 🙂

It is in the middle of a beautiful forest and still contains both Shinto and Buddhist elements. (Which was common for shrines until the Meiji period, when Shinto was deliberately separated from Buddhism elsewhere. Here the two religions were so intertwined that the separation was not carried out completely). But for the ones who are not so much into history – it is simply just beautifully crafted, set in a relaxing forest and definitely worth the visit. But, be prepared for the stairs.

Alternatively, what you could do in one day are the shrines and Lake Chuzenji with Kegon Falls. Žiga persuaded me against doing this option, as the drive to Lake Chuzenji takes around 50 minutes from the train station, and we were late coming to Nikko anyway.

So we finished our day at around 5 pm, with me falling asleep on the train somewhere on the way to Tokyo. I’d give this trip 3/5 rating. If I was alone I’d probably go to Disneyland, which sounds horrible, but that’s the way it is. But still, Nikko is a fine trip for nature and history lovers and a nice getaway from Tokyo if you need one.

So, that’s the story of last day in Tokyo. Next stop: Hakone.