12-13th October

13 Oct 15 – Nikko Escursion

This morning I ate at the Luxe Dining Hapuna restaurant.  I'm glad I went down early, as I had heard from others that it was very busy yesterday and some people had to queue and wait to get in. I was out of there by 6.30ish and it was about a 3rd full then.

Today we visited Nikko National Park, in particular the UNESCO World Heritage-listed, Toshogu shrine complex.  

It is the burial place of Shogun Tokugawa leyasu and there is a mix of highly decorated Shinto and Buddhist buildings, although the mausoleum is very austere.  

 mausoleum 

Nikko had been a centre of Shinto and Buddhist mountain worship for many centuries before Toshogu was built in the 1600s, and Nikko National Park continues to offer scenic, mountainous landscapes, lakes, waterfalls, hot springs, wild monkeys and hiking trails.

Nikko and the Okunikko area around Lake Chuzenji, in particular, are well known for their beautiful autumn colours (koyo). In the average year the colors start descending from the higher elevations of Yumoto Onsen in early October, are best around Lake Chuzenjiand the Irohazaka road in mid to late October and reach the town of Nikko in the first half of November.

Nikko is located along Japan's  Romantic Road.

12 October 2015 – Tokyo

I decided that I'd have breakfast at the "Top Of Shinagawa" restaurant today, as it isn't open for breakfast again before we leave for Hakone.  On entry, you are given a card, which is your table reservation. Place it where you want to sit and then go and visit the buffet table. There was both western and Japanese buffets set up and the dining room is so huge that they have the same set up on the other side of the room. I just had orange juice, French toast with a poached egg on top with hollandaise sauce plus a soft bun with jam. After that I went for a short walk around the area, to get some fresh air and then back to my room, to sort things out for the day.

First stop today was the Edo-Tokyo Museum.

From there we headed to the Buddhist Asakusa Kannon. It is Tokyo's oldest temple.  The entrance is dominated by the 'Thunder Gate' or kaminari-mon. The temple area is also known as Sensoji.  There is a beautiful 5 story pagoda (which we didn't visit) and also the main hall, which we did visit.  

There is a Shinto shrine, the  Asakusa Jinja and also a street of market shops catering to the millions of visitors who visit each year. We walked through all this, to see the South Entrance.  After that we had 1.5hrs before we had to meet again and continue the sight seeing.

From there we went to view the Imperial Palace and the gardens nearby.

Our welcome dinner was held tonight and we all met at 6:45, to walk to a restaurant the other side of the Shinagawa Railway Station. It was a traditional Japanese restaurant. Shoes were removed before entering our dining area.  Fortunately we didn't have to sit on the floor, as there was a cut out area under the table, so it was just like sitting on a chair at a table.  One of the ladies had trouble getting down and then getting up later.  Delicious food and I really can't remember what was what.  One of the entree's consisted of roasted pumpkin and roasted tuna and that was yummy.