Nikko

I discovered this morning that I am not as clever as I thought - funny how I keep discovering that. When I went to look for our reserve tickets from Ueno to Utsonomiya, they were nowhere to be found. I realised that I had torn off one more page than I should have when getting tickets yesterday. Not a big deal, after breakfast we went to the JR ticket office in Nippori station and got them, but a good reminder to check things well in advance. We spent rather too long at Ueno station and seriously underestimated the time needed to get from the local JR station down to the Shinkansen platforms. A bot of a dash and we got jumped onto the train with only seconds to spare. Luckily it turned out to be our train as we didn't have time to check. 

It is a lovely train ride up to Nikko, with splendid mountains getting ever closer, as the train glides through rice fields and woods. And JR Nikko station is a splendid destination. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright according to my guide book, it has a fine symmetrical old world charm. There was yet another group of Japanese seniors out sketching and painting the building. This seems to be a popular senior's pastime in Japan.

After dropping off our bags we headed off up to explore the Nikko Sannai area, stopping for a delicious lunch of 'omurice with white sauce'  - sort of like an omelette over a mound of rice with a tasty sauce and some green vegetables - in a nice little bar along the way.

We visited the Toshogu shrine, which has marvellous carved and painted figures. Our favourite was the elephants on one of the sacred store houses before the main shrine. It is said that the artist had not actually seen an elephant, but that did not prevent him from doing an absolutely brilliant job.

There was at least one cultural event happening or about to happen at the Shrine. The place was packed with school children, workmen erecting stands, people with dogs, elaborate bonsai plants, and numbers of Japanese tour groups. The shrine itself is at the top of a fair old climb, and then there are some 206 steep stone steps up to Ieyasu's tomb, which Anne, not being overly fond of stairs, had specifically indicated we should skip. But by some appalling mismanagement  and poor navigation on my part, we found ourselves on those very stairs. What else to do but push on to the top?

All in all, we were glad to escape the Toshogu shrine without collapsing or being trampled by a group of energetic school children. We headed on over to the Rinnoji temple nearby, which is less celebrated and much more peaceful. But also with lots of stairs. It was definitely time to call it a day, and by good fortune a bus appeared, which dropped us back at Nikko Station close to our hotel.

Feeling a bit weary we dined at a restaurant in the hotel named, somewhat ambitiously, 'The Terrace'. As the venue is a room totally enclosed within the hotel, totally lacking any sight of the outside world, and equally devoid of ambience, the name is a bit of a stretch, but the service was nice, the food good, so we were pleased with our choice. After dinner we went for a stroll up to the convenience store up the hill. We felt cold for he first time since we arrived in Japan. On the way back, there was what looked like a ballet class on in the upstairs room of the JR Station building, a lovely sight through the brightly lit windows, and a nice end to the day.