Our schedule for today is Nikko. Pris and Kath said that the weather will be too cold for Momo (yesterday was -1 degree) so I was left behind in the apartment and the 2 heartless women just went on with their trip to Nikko. ( T _ T )
So today’s host is Pris and Kath, that’s me.
You can see “Nikko is Nippon” posters everywhere in Tokyo and Nikko. Japan is highly promoting Nikko. Pris and Kath took the Shinkansen to Utsunomiya (宇都宮) and change to the JR Nikko Line for Nikko. On the JR Nikko Line train, you can see a lot of tourists.
When we arrived at Nikko, it was indeed cold but bearable. We went straight to Lake Chuzenji and Kegon Falls. We took the Tobu bus and the journey was about an hour. Along the way on the bus, there was snow at the roadside. It must have snowed the last few days. The way to Lake Chuzenji was uphill and involved a lot of sharp U-turns. They call the slope – Iroshika Slope. As I get motion sickness easily, I prepared myself this time with motion sickness pill. Guess what, I slept throughout the whole journey. Wahahaha! V ( ^ O ^ ) V
We finally reached Lake Chuzenji. With the majority of tourist going to Kegon Falls, we make our way to Lake Chuzenji to get away from the crowd. The lake was amazing. Part of the surrounding was covered with snow so it makes the scenery even more heart melting. We took photos and more photos of the lake with mountains. Oh….we met 2 Singaporeans there too. What a coincidence?
Enough of Lake Chuzenji, we proceed to Kegon Falls. We were hoping that the waterfall was not frozen due to the cold weather. We were lucky. It was falling with full energy. It’s so grand. To have a better view of the waterfall, we paid for the elevator ticket to get to the bottom of the falls – 100m down. This was worth it. You have a full view of the Kegon Falls compared to the view from the top. We took photos and then proceed for lunch.
It seems that ゆば (yu-ba) is famous in Nikko. Almost every shop is selling ゆばそば (yu-ba soba) or ゆばうどん (yu-ba udon) so we decided to give it a try too. We went to a family-run shop that was opposite the bus station. The owner, an old man, was trying to ask us to try his restaurant earlier when we were on our way to Kegon Falls so we decided to go back to his shop.
We ordered ゆばうどん(yu-ba udon) and mushroom tempura 舞茸そば(soba). While waiting for our food, a group of Taiwanese tourists were leaving and they kept saying おいしい、おいしい(oishii, oishii). When the food was served, we finally knew what is ゆば. It is actually some kind of beancurd skin. The food was delicious!! Really yummy especially the tempura so we decided to order a plate of the mushroom tempura.
Once you enter the shrine, you will see the “see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil” monkeys. They are really popular with tourists. Everyone was snapping away. Other that this popular figurine, there are other monkey figurines and they actually have an explanation for each figurine. Eg. One was showing a mother monkey looking far away with the baby monkey looking at her. It means the mother is looking into the future of her child. Interesting!
Next we proceed up to the shrine. It is under restoration work and part of it was covered. However, we still manage to snap the right picture. The sleeping cat needs a separate entrance ticket so we decided to give it a miss.
After Toshogu Shrine, we visited the other shrines – Futarasan Shrine and Rinnoji Temple. All temples and shrines close early at 4.00pm so that’s all we managed. Next, we went to the Shinkyo Bridge to take some pictures before returning to the station.
At the station area, we did some shopping and tried some local snacks – one fried pastry and one steam bun. Both had sweet bean paste in them. Nice!!!
Then it was home sweet home. Along the way, we stopped at Utsunomiya to transfer to the Shinkansen. As we were an hour early, we shopped at a nearby mall and I bought a pair of new Adidas track shoes as my other pair of shoes was giving me problem. It was a good bargain – just ￥2990. Then it was really home sweet home.
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