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