My Trip to Nikko

My solo trip to Nikko started at 7:30 PM on Saturday, right after work.  It had originally been organized by a fellow AEON teacher I trained with, and another teacher was going to be joining us.  Unfortunately, the two of them had to back out, so I made the trek by myself.  I'd had some difficulty finding out the train times for the route I was going to take, but I was reasonably sure that I could make it to Nikko before the last train that night.  Suitcase in hand, I walked briskly to Iwaki Station, and a few minutes later got on the train west to Koriyama.  At Koriyama, I transferred to the bullet train/shinkansen (for reals this time!) to go south to Utsunomiya.  The shinkansen process was a little confusing at first; you have to buy both a regular fare ticket for the distance you want to travel, as well as a shinkansen ticket.  I also accidentally got on one of the reserved cars and had to relocate to a new seat.  In Utsunomiya, I transferred to the JR Nikko Line and had a 40 minute wait for the last train of the night.  I made use of the time to finally grab some dinner, a cheap convenience store bento.  I arrived in Nikko at 11:30 PM, and as soon as I left the station they closed up for the night.  I was pretty amazed that I'd actually managed to get there with such a small margin of error and in the nick of time.  The whole journey cost me close to ¥7000, but it got me there.

Seeing as how it was close to midnight, everything was dark and very foggy.  There were basically no cars on the road, and I had what the Nikko Park Lodge said was a 15 minute walk to the hostel.  I was incredibly grateful to have a smart phone for this trip - I used it religiously on the trains to make sure I was going the right way, and it also came in handy to check the Lodge's written directions against the map.  The hostel itself was located in a small park north-northwest of the station, and it was a little creepy at times with all the fog and occasional animal noises, but I kept my cool and soldiered on.  I got a little bewildered right at the end of my journey; the directions said that the hostel was across from a pottery museum, but there was only a house across the street from the museum.  I wasn't about to knock on anyone's door at midnight and the phone number I had for the hostel didn't seem to work, so I stumbled around for a short while trying to figure out what to do.  I eventually took another look at the map and realized that the pottery museum was on a side street, and that there was a larger building past the house.  It was, in fact, the place I'd been looking for, and the front door was very fortunately unlocked, so I went inside.

Less fortunately, no one was there at 12:15 AM, and until that moment I hadn't thought to call or email them that I would be coming in late.  I've been in Japan long enough that I've gotten used to not communicating with people unless I absolutely have to, and I hadn't expected to be able to speak English here.  I didn't know which room was mine and I didn't have a key anyway, so I changed out of my work clothes in the public restroom and tried to get some sleep on the couch in the front room.  I surprised a couple guests on their way out at 6 AM, and woke up again at 7 AM when one of the staff members came in.  She was a foreigner as well (I think American,) and was both surprised and amused that I had been sleeping on the couch.  She didn't have the authority to check me in, but she got me into my room, and I got to sleep in a bed for another hour before I gave up and came out for breakfast.  One of the owners, who spoke near-perfect English, checked me in and gave me breakfast for free because he was embarrassed about charging me for the two nights I'd booked.  He said that he'd left the front doors unlocked on the off chance that I did show up, which I was immensely grateful for.  I don't know what I would've done if I'd walked all that way just to be locked out for the night.

Once I was cleaned up and fed, I grabbed everything I thought I would need for the day and set out to explore.  At this altitude, many of the trees were still green, though there were many trees with beautiful shades of yellow, orange and red.

I had two maps that the hostel staff gave me, so I at least knew where I was going.  One map mentioned an okonomiyaki restaurant near the shrine and temple area, which I was eager to try out.  I'd heard a lot about okonomiyaki from anime and manga and eaten it once or twice in the US, but I really wanted to eat authentic Japanese okonomiyaki.  It was close to noon by the time I got to the park with the shrines and temples, so I decided to eat lunch before delving into the massive complex.

The restaurant was really neat, with a griddle in the center of every table.  I ordered a shrimp okonomiyaki and miso soup from their English menu, and a short while later the server came back with a bowl of ingredients (shredded cabbage, egg, batter, shrimp, and green onions.)  She had me stir it until it was sufficiently mixed, then poured it on the griddle and told me to flip it every 3 minutes.  Mayonnaise is a common okonomiyaki condiment, but they didn't have any and I wasn't keen on using it anyway.  I brushed mine lightly with a dark brown sauce they had, and it was pretty good.  It wasn't the best thing ever, but it was a good experience and I'm looking forward to doing it again sometime soon.

After lunch, I went back to the park to fully explore the shrines and temples.  Some of the park was free, but of course the best attractions you have to pay to get into.  I bought a combination pass for ¥1300, which got me into most (but not all) of the paid areas.  The extra fees rubbed me the wrong way, and I only had so much time to explore, so I declined to go into any of those places.  The whole complex was amazingly beautiful, with an incredible array of stunning structures and artwork.  I actually almost ran out of batteries in my camera, and I spent the last hour wondering if each shot I took would be my last.  I ran out of light and viewing time (everything closes at 4:30 PM) first, though, so it all worked out for the best.

My one big gripe about the area was how commercialized it was.  Every major structure had people dressed in traditional shrine/temple garb selling various good luck charms and other souvenirs.  There were also huge numbers of omiyage/souvenir shops scattered throughout the park and town selling a variety of other trinkets and knickknacks.  I expected it to some extent, but not at the level that I experienced.  It was kind of sad, like the soul of the area had been compromised to make a buck.  The constant nickel-and-diming was wearing as well, and I was getting it at the hostel, too.  It's a little grating to have to pay ¥100 for a towel just so that you can take a shower.

I got back to the hostel after dark and had a delicious vegetarian curry with brown rice for dinner.  I'd noticed a surprisingly large number of typos in the Lodge's brochure/map, so I took a few minutes to correct everything and gave it to one of the owners.  I have no idea whether he'll do anything with it or not, but it was a good exercise for me.  I'd heard about a hot spring/onsen a short walk away from the hostel, so I went out to find it.  After wandering around in the dark for a while (again,) I eventually stumbled on it.  It only cost ¥400, though I did have to pay ¥300 to rent a towel set.  It was a cozy little place, with four places to clean up before and after entering the hot spring (as per onsen etiquette, to keep the water as clean as possible.)  They had one tiled pool inside, as well as an outdoor bath with more traditional stonework.  A couple guys from the hostel came in while I was getting cleaned up and hopped right in the pool.  They'd never been in an onsen before, and were a little embarrassed once they figured out what they were supposed to have done.  I ended up chatting with them and an older gentleman who spoke excellent English for a while, then went back to the hostel and chatted a little more with some newcomers sharing my room.

I got up at 7 AM the next morning because I was going on a guided tour of the waterfalls and lakes (for ¥4000) with a very nice retired couple from Ohio.  The hostel served breakfast at 8 AM, so our guide (the same owner I'd been talking to before) stopped at a convenience store so we could grab some food to go.  It had been cloudy the day before, and this day was foggy and drizzly as well.  Our first stop was at a moderate sized shrine, and then we went to the Ryuzu (Dragon Head) Falls.

 
After that, we stopped at Lake Chuzenji, though it was too foggy to see much.

Next, we drove to the source of the hot springs in the area.  The water was a very interesting mix of blue, white and green from the sulfur, and the air smelled very strongly of eggs.  We tested the water and it was, in fact, quite hot!

We then walked over to a sulfur spring foot bath, where we relaxed in the hot water and talked for about an hour.

Next on our itinerary was the Yudaki Falls, easily the most impressive one we'd seen yet.

We saw another group of people from the hostel and exchanged a few words, then moved on to our last stop.  I don't know the name of this waterfall, but unfortunately it was much too foggy to see anything.  We could hear the waterfall, but it was completely obscured.  We could have taken an elevator (for ¥500) up to an observation point closer to the waterfall, which a large line of people were doing.  However, our guide astutely pointed out that there was a TV monitor showing the view of the waterfall from the observation point, and that you could barely see the waterfall on the screen.  We wisely chose to save our money and went back to the hostel, arriving a little after 1 PM.

Our guide generously offered to drive me to the station, so I grabbed my bags and started my long trek back to Iwaki.  It was a pretty uneventful journey until Koriyama, when I realized that the next train wasn't coming for almost an hour and wouldn't even take me all the way to Iwaki.  Around the time it was supposed to arrive, I did some more research on my phone and found out, to my dismay, that train service between Koriyama and Iwaki was spotty because the highway buses handled most of the traffic.  I (probably foolishly) decided to stick it out and took the train to Ononiimachi, about halfway to Iwaki, then had to endure another hour and a half wait for the next train.  I finally got back to Iwaki Station around 8 PM, dropped off the omiyage I bought for my coworkers at school and trudged home, exhausted.  It's kind of crazy to think that it took me four hours to get there, but seven hours to get back.  I'm definitely taking the bus the next time I have to go to or through Koriyama.

All in all, it was a pretty amazing trip.  I would have preferred to hang out with my fellow AEON teachers, but it did give me the freedom to see what I wanted to see at my own pace.  I didn't exactly keep careful records, but I think the trip cost me somewhere between ¥40,000 – ¥50,000 altogether, which I guess isn't too bad.  I also learned a lot about getting around in Japan, and I feel much more comfortable and confident about taking the train now.  I'm not sure what the next place I'll visit in Japan will be, but I'm pretty sure it'll be great, too!