Come Away with Me

Nikko: A World Heritage Site & Hot Spring

On the second last day, we made a trip to Nikko, in Tochigi prefecture. Given its proximity to Tokyo (you can reach the place easily by train in under 2 hours) it is a popular destination for locals who feel the need to get away from the bustling city scene once in a while to get closer to nature. It offers weary city dwellers scenic mountainous landscapes, numerous beautiful waterfalls, lakes and hot springs.
For foreigners who are keen to experience the more rustic and rural side of Japan, Nikko makes for a convenient and quick getaway.





Nature aside, Nikko is most famous for the Toshogu, the country's most lavishly decorated shrine and mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa shogunate. It is a magnificent complex of colorful structures featuring numerous shrines, temples and pagodas with intricate and fascinating carvings which was added to Unesco's World Heritage List in 1999. It is certainly a place not to be missed by any history buff. This, as well as the fact that we were all getting tired of fighting the constant crowd in Tokyo, led us to take a day off to visit this quiet little town.


And while we were here, what better way to spend the night than at a ryokan. Really,a visit to a hot spring, complete with the typical Japanese style dinner and breakfast is one experience which I think is essential for any visitor to this country. Rob and Jac had a lot of fun just fitting into those hotel yukatas, taking pictures and starring at the food that was laid on the table when we arrived for dinner. Mom was more collected since it was her second visit to an onsen. And both of us agreed that while the hot spring in Nikko area serves as a good introduction, it is hard to find a match after you've been to one of the best onsen region in the country in Yufuin...


Nevertheless, I am glad my sibs had a lot of fun at the ryokan and that is really all that mattered. :)


As you can tell from the pictures, breakfast was another lavish affair and somehow the 2 younger ones can't quite get used to having rice, miso soup and fish at eight in the morning.

And so it was with Nikko that we concluded our Golden Week travel. The day my family left Tokyo was one day in Japan I will never forget. After spending the last 10 days on the road together, it was hard being alone again. The fact that you are in the country's most populous city surrounded by millions of strangers just seemed to magnify this sense of solitude. The quietness was especially unnerving. The noise that were missing from our constant squabbles and laughter, not being able to share food and funnny anecdotes were things I missed terribly whenever my visitors left me. It was the same on previous occasions but somehow i had it harder this time. Perhaps it was because of the long journey that I had to make from Tokyo back to the island (my family actually arrived in Singapore earlier than I did even though mine was a domestic travel can you imagine!) and the aftermath of all the traveling done.

Nonetheless, I am really thankful and happy to have so many of my family members and my boyfriend visiting me over this short period of time. The many trips that I made with them are all part of the beautiful memories that I will cherish for a long time to come.

posted by テレサ @ 12:59 PM