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2025-04-17 01:01
in Japan, Japan2025, Ntrips, Trips
Because Nikko had a lot of cool things to see, and I didn't know about Edo Wonderland, I arrived only 2H before it closed, which was enough to get a feel for it, but not nough to see all their shows. It was worth 3 or 4H but the 2 were still more than fun:
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2025-04-15 01:01
in Japan, Japan2025, Ntrips, Trips
I also had been to Nikko before, but since I was going to be back in Japan during their main festival, I also figured it would be fun to go back.
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 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:
it snowed!
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
π
2025-04-13 01:01
in Japan, Japan2025, Ntrips, Trips
I had been to Takayama beforeTakayama 2, but since I was going to be back in Japan during their biyearly float festival (apparently the 3rd most popular festival in Japan), I figured it would be fun to go back. The 2 small downsides were that it's a bit of a trip from Tokyo, but thankfully there is a 6H direct bus from Shinjuku that went there. The other downside was that the city was super booked and it was both very expensive and very hard to find a room for those 2 days (close to $500 a night).
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:
