Holy balls, it was cold on top of those mountains. If you don’t know about Nikko, check out some info here or here. Basically, it’s a historic town north of Tokyo that has a bunch of cultural stuff that both Japanese and tourists love. It has famous temples, famous bridges, famous waterfalls, famous onsen, famous mountains, famous fall colors, etc.

Our plan: We got the All Nikko Pass ticket for 4400 yen (~$40) that got us round trip from Asakusa station in Tokyo to the Nikko station. It also gave us free buses anywhere in the park, which is a huge deal. Get on the bus and just show the ticket to the bus driver when getting off and there are no problems. Easy peazy. Without the ticket, I think it would cost somewhere around 1500 yen to get from the train station to the top of the mountains. Try riding this bus up and down a few times and it really adds up. Not only this, but it also gives you discounts at certain places in Nikko, like some souvenier shops. It’s only a ~10% discount, which isn’t much, but it is better than nothing.

We booked a Japanese style room in a hotel in Otsunomya, a short 1 hour, 750 yen train ride away from Nikko. It was the cheapest hotel that we could find in the area, so we figured it would be worth it to stay so far from Nikko. We didn’t regret it either, because the Japanese style room we got was really pretty awesome for what they charged us. Check out the pictures for more info. Otsunomiya is a much bigger town that I thought it would be, or at least the station area was pretty nice.

My thoughts: I loved Nikko. Maybe it’s just the tourist in me, but I think that the architecture of the temples there is really beautiful. I also love nature, so Nikko was a heartily welcomed view of the nature that you can’t really see in Tokyo. The trees, rivers, hiking trails, snow, and mountains are all stuff I love to see, and my camera was hungry for making more lush photographs for me, so if you are at all like me, then invest some yen in a trip to Nikko to avoid regrets.

Kaminariman

Asahi plant

Arrival in Nikko

Not far from the train station

The real reason people go to Nikko

Temple street

The lowest temple

Gardens

A stack of temples

Next to the Awesome Temple

Famous bridge

Another view

Our Japanese-style hotel room

Also included

The Japanese Way

Japanese toilet

The toilet buttons

Otsunomiya station

Inside the Awesome Temple

Famous monkeys

The actual Awesome Temple

Protection charms

More temple architecture

Samurai protection

Inside at last

To the left of the Awesome Temple

Taking the bus up to the top

Kegan Falls

A lake and a torii gate

The lake

Our hiking trail

View from the trail