So, things started in Tokyo. I picked Shinjuku since it's nearby most things I cared about. The first day was really just the end of the day, but enough to go out for dinner and walk around:

meat is not cheap in Japan but it's very good

Then a quick walk through Golden Gai and its streets filled with little bars;

And random things in the streets that are fun:

unfortunately the original robot restaurant is dead. The new one is nowhere close

Next morning, went to the MET, thinking it we could go up somewhere by 08:30, but the information was confusing and we'd only be allowed up at 09:30, which was too late due to a reservation at Shibuya Sky at 10:00:

So, not much of a view at MET before you can go to the top (it's free, but opened too late that morning), however, there was time to go walk though Yoyo-ji on the way to Shibuya Sky:

Tnen, it was finally time for Shibuya Sky, which does require reservations weeks in advance. I found it nice and fun to visit, but probably overhyped and not worth the headaches to try and get a last minute timeslot:

Yoyo-ji Park

Shibuya crossing

Mario Karts :)

Didn't realize there was a google building nextdoor ;)

A few pictures from lower down before going back to Shibuya crossing:

It was then fun to go visit Takeshita Street:

Yum

One fun thing in Takeshita Street, are all the animal cafés:

There were also nearby fancy dog cafés:

After cute animal overload, went to visit Gyoen National Garden, which was beautiful during cherry blossom season:

Then, it was time to go back to Shinjuku for the Ninja Show:

Then back around Shinjuku to find dinner:

yummy teppanyaki

For day #2, took a cab towards Odaiba to save time over public transport:

Went back to Maraikan, which is still an inteeresting and unusual science museum:

The park outside had plenty of pretty tulips:

Then, we got to diver city shopping mall:

And the Unko museum:

Then more walking around the area:

And found another animal café, there:

More about Odaiba Animal Cafe Here

Inside the mall, lots more shops and fun museums, didn't have time for them all:

At that time, I got the great news that we could go to Teamlab Borderless (my online ticket chagne, was approved, so it made sense to cut things short a bit and head towards the Mori buidling for Teamlabs:

And then time for a yummy sushi dinner:

A quick walk through Ginza from there:

And that was it for Tokyo, next morning was a bus to Takayama

piggie overload ;)

more piglets :)

Then, cute dogs :)

Then another cute dog café:

And more:

chinchilla!

Cuteness overload ;)

Even had a nice dessert:

the sunflower seeds I almost always carry, came in handy :)

always love those little birds

even the chicks loved them

first time seeing Capibara, finally. They are kind of very big docile rats :)

soft and nice, also loved sunflower seeds

giant rabbit

also an owl café :)

even a sloth

Pretty indoors:

they have new menus every few weeks for sub seasons of the year

display of the food that was going to be served

Post dinner photo, thanks for the yummy food:

It took a while to find the building museum at the basement of a building, but found it eventually:

One inside, it was very nice:

The very impressive hanging LED room:

And the Tea Room was simply amazing. That was beautiful and magical at the same time:

Summary of Instagram Videos:

Long story short, absolutely recommended, book early.

early morning bus from shinjuku

8:15 direct bus to Takyama

no more new snow, but rain

plenty of snow

Once arrived in Takayama, started with the float museum:

Then went to the folk village museum:

On the way back to town, found a cafe rescue cafe, worth a stop :)

The very expensive hotel with the only room left:

the first restaurant looked interesting, but the meat was not great

The next morning, first went to visit a local museum and market:

After that, it was time to see the floats and puppet show on top of floats. Those puppets were very nicely animated:

lots of people came to see the show

Then it was a good time for a walk around town and its small museums:

The floats were being displayed around town:

After that, it was a good time to go for for a the pretty mountain walk around town. Higashiyama Walking Course is tricky to follow, thankfully I had my GPS track from 2016 that helped a lot:

found a wild mountain goat

At the end of the walk, was the float museum which, turns out, only had the autumn floats, while the spring floats were outside:

Nextdoor was a small indoor museum with a recreation of Nikko:

After that, it was time to go back to town to visit and see the float parade:

Old town has nice little shops including some beef sushi and yummy ice cream :)

Then the float parade finally arrived:

After that, there was more time to visit town and see fun things:

Unfortunately the evening festival was cancelled due to rain. It looked like a lot of fun, but didn't happen.

And then I did my best to find a better meat restaurant after the disappointing one from the previous night. It was indeed a lot better:

The next morning, there was about 2h to visit town before the trains to Nikko:

Due to light rain, the floats were not able to get out and performed in their respective shelters:

But there was time to see one last museum and a few nice views of town:

Takayama to Nikko is not an obvious route, 3 different trains:

Prius train, diesel and with electric assist and recharging electric to brake

lunch stop before the first shinkansen

connection to the next train, Japan always wins for the best colorful sign boards

one more train to Nikko, and it's indeed very well signed, hard to miss :)

made it!

Finally made it to our lovely Ryokan, Nikko Tokanso, with nice dinner:

Then it was time to enjoy the onsen:

the food was amazing

Then it was time to go pick up a rental car to reach farther destinations:

the town was already getting ready for the festival

pretty indeed

Picked up the rental car to have more flexibility in sightseeing, and then I drove the tiny 3 cylinder car up to lake Chuzenj on the InitialD road I had always wanted to drive :)

cute little toyota roomy with limited power, but it did the job

any driver will get excited by a GPS map like this :)

Obviously it was a terrible car to do high performance driving in, in, and definitely no drifting, but I had a fun time anyway :) Watch this video for details:

the ropeway seems fun but a bit unnecessary as well as impractical without a tour bus

a bit of snow, left

Once at the top, started with Kegon Waterfall:

snow under the waterfall, cool!

nice rainbows

Visitor center of Kegon waterfall:

beautiful nature all year long

Town was very windy that day, getting to that gate was challenging:

Then went to nearby temples:

and a small fishery nearby:

Back to town, Chuzenji temple, and a higher up viewing point:

Then, had the fun Initial-D drive back down:

To go check out some slightly farther temples:

There was still time for the Nikko Imperial Villa:

Tried to drive up another road wit hsome nice nature, but it was still snowed up:

Back to the ryokan for another nice dinner:

unlimited drinks option :)

plenty of food, again

The next morning, another nice breakfast:

And then an early walk to the beautiful temples next to our ryokan:

magestic is the only word I have

the famous nemui neko, sleepy cat

good to be early, later in the morning, it got busy

and since I lined up temple viewing with the festival timing, the floats arrived then:

they then dragged the floats up a ramp made just for the festival

no joke

then, there was some time to go back to the festival and enjoy the outfits:

We then joined a free walking tour, mostly to chat with the guide and get his perspective on things:

those things were heavy, some of the people were suffering

Because it was a special day, we even got free tea and sweets:

Next was a nearby museum, that was not essential:

And then I took the trusty rental car up a road to Edo Wonderland Nikko (click me for more), which was lots of fun and worth more than the 2H we had left. It was still beautiful to visit:

And the next morning was a return trip to Narita to fly to Korea, and that was a slightly challenging trip, barely made the subway connection by running between 2 train systems in the middle of Tokyo Skytree Mall:

barely had time for this picture

so happy to have made this subway, the next one was 40mn later

I tried:

They had troublemakers :)

Nice fish :)