Last Day in Japan

AMAZING last day! Carlos and I met down in the lobby at 6:50am to grab a 7:30am train to Nikko. After a two hour ride (which I obviously slept for most of) we arrived. As we were pulling up to the station, over the loud speaker they announced some tourist-y things to do, including taking a train up to an “observatory” where there was a waterfall. We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, decided it sounded cool, and found the information station once we got off the train for some more information. They pointed us in the direction of the bus terminal who promptly showed us the route to take, (took our money), and we headed to the bus stop.

After a 40 minute ride (up an incredibly windy road about 1400m up a mountain), we got off the bus only to realize it was FREEZING (and snowing). Post-bathroom stop in the shop (obviously) we headed down the road about five minutes to a breath-taking waterfall.
Once we couldn’t feel our fingers/hands/noses anymore, we found an elevator that took us 100m down for a better view. So, we decided to subject ourselves to a bit more pain in the name of a good look at nature, handed over 300 yen, and got on board.

We then headed down the road (it started snowing again) and towards a lake someone told us about. as we got closer and closer to the lake the roads got icier and the winds got stronger (we should have heeded this warning) but trekked on until we got to the lake. We were frostbitten at this point, I’m SURE of it, but it was totally worth it! The view was breath-taking x10 (possibly my favorite view of the trip) so we took as many pictures as we could before our fingers physically broke off, and headed back towards shelter.
We took a bus back towards town, and got off by the Nikko National Park. After paying 300 yen to cross the “bridge to nowhere” (OK, actually the Shinkyo, or Sacred Bridge – but seriously, we crossed, couldn’t get off, had to turn around, get off that bridge, and take an actual FREE bridge to get into the park – hmmmm) we entered the park and saw some pretty amazing temples and shrines (Rinnoji Temple, Toshogu Shrine, and Futarasan Shrine).

Train at 4:30pm, back in Tokyo at 6:30pm, and now we’re about to head to our favorite sushi conveyor belt place for our last Tokyo dinner (and sake)!

Back to reality tomorrow …