Welcome back~ My good friend Amanda and I decided to take a short trip to Nikko during our short break! Waseda gave us Thursday and Friday off, so we found a hostel, made some plans and took the train to Nikko!
At the end of our trip I'll be publishing a vlog-esque compilation video!
Amanda and I arrived Wednesday night at about 8:30 pm. We headed in from Takadanobaba, then went to Shinjuku Station. From Shinjuku Station we took the JR Nikko line to Shimo Imaichi, transferred, then went to Tobu Nikko Station! The whole trip took about 2 hours, and cost us about 3000 yen ($30).
We are staying at a youth hostel I found on Airbnb. It was my first time ever using Airbnb but I'm having a really good time! I would say this is a really good first experience to have~ The hostel is positioned right next to a river and you can hear the water from inside the house.
For our first day in Nikko, Amanda and I planned an ambitious itinerary.
Day 1 Plan:
Zip Line Cable Car Ride
Lookout
Visiting a Waterfall
Hiking
Hot Springs
Restaurant on the Water
Visiting a Temple
We actually ended up doing everything on the list! The Cable Car ride was 700 yen for a round trip, so we headed up and spent some time on the lookout. It gave us an amazing view of the waterfall and mountains, and a cute couple with a baby took photos of us.
There was a hiking path on the side of the mountain near the lookout, and we started to halfheartedly climb it. As we kept going, the road got smaller and began to slant at an angle so we began to get scared because we were literally climbing a mountain. After a few more paces we backed off and headed back to the lookout.
Our hostel owner advised us to go to Yumoto Hot Springs, so we took a local bus to the location. I thought Yumoto Hot Springs was a specific place, but it was actually just a general area with several hot spring places that connected to a local source. We visited the source as well and this horrible sulfur smell was wafting through the air. It was so bad I couldn't even stand to take photos of the place, I just plugged my nose and left.
We went to a hot spring place and got ready to get in, but the water was unbelievably hot. The last time I experienced water that temperature was when I went to the hot spring resort a few years back, and there was one specific hot spring that burned my foot. Amanda and I struggled to get into the hot spring fully, because it was so painfully hot. It took us a good 20 minutes to get in, and we could only bear it for 5 minutes at a time.
Towards the end of our time in the hot spring we found a little faucet that ran cold water into the pool, but by that time Amanda was feeling dizzy. We stayed a bit longer, dried off, remarked about how RED our bodies were (my entire leg was bright red) and sat down on a couch outside. We literally just sat there in silence, our hearts pounding and our bodies still tingling from the heat of the hot spring.
When we were riding the bus to Yumoto Hot Springs, we saw a restaurant that sat on the edge of a huge lake, and made a mental note to go there. On our way back we decided it was about dinner time, so we headed into the restaurant. There was no one there but us. The service was super quick and one of the servers chatted with us as we waited for our food. I got Yuba Ramen. Yuba is a staple food of Nikko, and it's made of fried tofu skin. You can get all types of Yuba all over Nikko.
Before riding the bus home, we stopped at a temple across the street and walked around a bit. I got a $1 fortune from a little kiosk, which actually turned out to be a pretty bad one! I was pretty miffed about it!!! I really want to go back tomorrow and get another one. Hmmm~
I hope you liked this little post! I'll see you tomorrow!
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