Nikko Roadtrip: Nighttime in Utsunomiya

Ok, I will be bothering you with the Nikko Roadtrip series just 2 more times including this entry now. I have SO much I want to blog about, my brain goes a bit crazy. It's fun showing the rural view of Japan, but I think it will be enough for awhile after this series completes.

But! Today is not a rural view of Japan, today I am share with you our overnight stay during the Nikko trip. We stayed in a hotel in Utsunomiya, which is a small city in Tochigi prefecture, where Nikko is located. It was nice to have the conforts of the city after a long day roadtripping XD



A guide mook for Tochigi prefecture, I have always gotten good use out of these guides XD

By the time we arrived in Utsunomiya it was already evening so it was getting dark. We checked into our hotel that was kinda tucked away on a side street first thing, and it was fairly nice. It was dated, but had a nice tatami floor. For three people I think tatami and futons work more nicely.



Nightview of Utsunomiya near my hotel

But as I said it was evening, so everyone was getting really hungry and ready to eat. Like everywhere in Japan Utsunomiya has a "regional dish" or a food that is known as it's specialty. In this case it's gyoza! It's that great, I love gyoza!



Restaurant named Men Men

We decided to go to this gyoza restaurant because it was recommended in the guide mook shown above. Sorry to do this two posts in a row, but here's some more appetite inducers.



Tofu, something healthy for the dieter (ie me...TT)


But here's what everyone really wants, yummy gyoza


A covered shopping arcade, but already closed for the night

After eating there was a bit of time to explore Utsunomiya before going to bed, though everyone was tired so we couldn't spend too much time for it. Sadly I guess not many people go out in the evening because all the shops were already closed down!!



Dresses for local hostesses

Though there was not much time to see Utsunomiya, I did catch a glimpse of this hostess dress shop. I wonder what gyaru brand shopping may have been available there XD Well then we just went back to the hotel and had a sleep to get energy for last day haha.



View from the hotel window

Nikko Roadtrip: Toshogu and Futarasan shrines

Now it's going to get a bit strange as I write about two different Japan Trips during the same period of time. Though I think the Nikko Roadtrip series can be mixed in with this trips posts, I want to say again I went to Nikko last year haha. I just didn't write about it back then.




The entrance to Toshogu Shrine

Now I believe the most famous, most visited tourist point in Nikko is the Toshogu shrine. It is known as the most heavily decorated shrine in Japan, and was created as the mausoleum for Tokugawa Ieyasu (the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, so he's important haha).

At the Toshogu shrine you are going to find a complex of over a dozen buildings, and many amazing cravings decorating the exterior of the buidlings. Here is where that famous "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" monkey carving.




A pagoda is part of Toshogu


Closed! TT

But! The Toshogu shrine closes at 4:30pm, so must be there before that time. I am sad to say we were not, so we didn't get in. Really we were like 5 minutes late TT

Luckily the Futarasan was still open, and it is located just a short distance from Toshogu. Futarasan is a very old shrine which was founded in 782 and dedicated to the kami in Nikko's Mount Nantai, Mount Nyoho and Mount Taro. It is open until 5:00pm so we had enough time to explore this shrine a bit^^




Entrance to Futarasan shrine


The trees look so impressive with the shrine


Miko in the shrine


A scared tree

It was getting late in the day after that point so we drove to Utsunomiya after that to our hotel for the night, so the next part of the Nikko Roadtrip will be about Utsunomiya.

I hope everyone enjoys the historical photos of Japan, of course I have more modern ones coming up soon for everyone who loves the pop culture and city life of Tokyo^^

Nikko Roadtrip: Kegon Falls and Lake Chuzenji

Oh well, I had just written a post about mirrors and body image, but I totally chickened out (I am too weak for that kinda writing TT) So now I have to write out a while new post. But that's ok because I have been meaning to post the next part of the Nikko Roadtrip anyway XD



Kegon Falls, so misty!

The first place we stopped in Nikko was a very famous tourist spot featuring a lovely natural feature - the Kegon Falls! These waterfalls are located in Nikko National Park (within Nikko) and are 97 meters high, which makes Kegon Falls one of the three highest falls in all of Japan!





Gotta make sure to get a shot with the falls too!

You could descend down to the lower part of the falls by elevator and get a better view of them, but I feel like such a big waterfall is too hard to appreciate even from a dramatic angle. I thought they were really lovely.

After being misted by the waterfall for awhile, we decided to move onto the next site (since we had limited time) and luckily Lake Chuzenji another great natural tourist site was close at hand.



I'd never see a lake next to mountains in MN haha




Lake Chuzenji is a huge volcanic lake, I mean it was created by a lava flow cutting off a river. It is a huge lake, with a depth of 163 meters. Though I come from the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes, I still enjoyed the scenery.




Of course if looking at nature is not so entertaining for you, they also offered swan boats for a ride about the lake. And in the area surrounding Kegon Falls and Lake Chuzenji there are plenty of shops and restaurants.

I hope everyone enjoys the nature photos of Japan (there's more to come!) I think its fun to see the other side of Japan besides concrete and fashion haha.

On the road to Nikko, soba and omiyage pitstops

Yesterday was busy! Somehow though I know how long it takes to do my makeup and styling, I always run out of time haha. But I have some exciting things to show soon because of it, look forward to it!

Another thing I have been excited to share is the photos from my trip to Nikko with my friend and his friend. I don't often get the chance to go outside Tokyo, so this trip was really fun for me!



This was some typical scenery on the drive to Nikko

I want to begin this mini-series with some stops we had on the way to Nikko, as it's a road trip it was necessary to stop and have a rest sometimes. The rural view during the drive was beautiful though!



The exterior of the restaurant

Stopping for lunch, we visited a soba restaurant, just there on the road. I don't think it was well known, but given it's styling it looked like it was built for the tourists going through.

The interior feature long and wide tables made of big pieces of polished wood. As well as some big tree trunks. There was also a tatami room, of course there you sat on the floor.



Interior shot with wooden tables and a big tree trunk?


Sitting around and chatting

I was being very good about my diet then, and a noodle restaurant is not the most diet friendly place you will find in Japan haha! But my friends suggested I have yasai soba since it had many vegetables, and if you are gonna eat noodles, soba is much better because of the buckwheat content ^^/



My friend had zaru soba


My yasai soba

I felt really bad because I only ate a tiny bit of the noodles, I hate wasting food!! Well after the meal we drove some more, and we stopped at a tourist shop/rest stop on top of a small mountain.





It had a lot of the typical boxed foods and snacks that Japanese people exchange as gifts. Of course I saw lots of tasty sweets I wish I could buy for myself, but I didn't haha.

I did want to use the restroom there tho, but it was all squat toilets, and a lady was washing the whole room out with a hose... so I just turned around and walked out haha!





We enjoyed the view a bit and then headed back out. I hope everyone enjoyed this first part of my trip to Nikko, there are more interesting pics coming soon!