The Japan part of our trip is effectively three different trips in major cities (Kyoto, Tokyo Pt. 1, Tokyo Pt. 2) with little excursions to the mountains inbetween. The time in Takayama more significant, for two and a half days. Takayama presented itself quickly as a lovely little mini city, where everything is walkable. Nikko is the other stop, a most of two days + one night "day trip", far closer to Tokyo (though still requiring two stops and 105 minutes), but even more remote and more befitting of the comparison to Luang Prabang, or El Calafate. Most things are off of one giant road that runs through the town for about 2km, with the train about a quarter of the way through.
The trip to Nikko was uneventful apart from us cutting it a bit too close on making the first Shinkansen due to the ludicrous inefficiency and unconnectedness of the stop lights in Tokyo. When on the Shinkansen, it was fine. What surprised us was how many tourists were headed to Nikko. Granted, I geuss there's probably not many non-tourists, but a whole bunch of people got off the Shinkansen at the change point and switched to the local JR to Nikko.
Nikko itself is truly Japan's version of an El Calafate. A super well set-up town for tourists, with good enough local touches. Like our lunch place Keiyouka Kazushi, a sushi spot that for sure caters mostly to foreigners given their english menu and english speaking ability of the husband & wife ownership team, but local enough that half the people there were locals. We had a combanation plate of about 8 nigiri, a roe sushi, a 4-piece roll, and miso soup, which was just a perfect quantity and perfect taste.
From there we started the hike, first thruogh the length of the main road, passing a slew of shops, a couple of which we decided to take a brief step into. My favorite was one call Woodcom which had a bunch of lacquer and wood products. At the very north end of the main road, right before it hits the Daiya River and transitions into what I'll call the "Temple Circuit" (they should call it this too), is Murmur Birru Stand, a craft beer bar that serves four of their own taps. We will be stopping here on the way back.
Nikko is known for both being an entry point into the mountains, and for a few onsen hot spas that are in near distance, and for having a surprising amount of intricate temples, namely four of them that are fairly well connected in close order, needing about a 20-30 minute hike to get to the first one. Of the four, one is fully free, two are mainly free though requiriing a ticket to see the inner most parts (sold in combination for a discount), and then one requires a ticket for basically all of it. We ended up paying for what we needed.
The first one we visited was the Nikkozan Rinnoji temple, which was probably the msot similar to the ones we've seen elsewhere - namely a couple large halls with black and white wood, an open courtyard, a few smaller buildings, a few nice sculptures. The setting was great, with a cool mountain wind, rolling hills of forests on each side, but the temples itself are a continuation of what we've seen.
The rest are all special, and also higher up the hills, more ingrained in nature. The next up was the Toshogu temple, which is the one that requires a ticket for the entire complex, but it was so worth it. It might be the msot ornate, most "awesome" temple of our entire time in Japan. It was the largest complex in terms of things to see, with a series of gates adn walls and shrines begatting more gates and walls and shrines. There was a five story pagoda in the middle. There was a gate where they claimed was the "most ornate in all of Japan", I believe based on teh number of carvings or some such. It was truly impressive.
It was maybe halfway through this I had a weird epiphany to be honest, that the museum in Takayama that miniature models of temples was largely showcasing this one. I should have known had I remembered the name of that museum was the Nikkosan... But anyway, I'm pretty sure I'm write and now a bit peeved they didn't go through the effort to build miniature trees to go along with it to give the proper full effect. It was a special place in every way. Truly on eof the more unexpected joys of the trip. We knew of Nikko as a haven of temples high in the hills, but still weren't expecting this.
Next was the Futarasan Jinja temple which was the only one to be fully free. It too had a series of temples and shrines at various layers (forgot to mention, that was true of the Toshogu as well, as it had about five different series of steps splitting up its grounds). It was the most unique of them in that it was replete with a striking red color and had, at least to me, the most impressive gates. There was a path in the back up higher to a shrine, but a quick Googling led us to believe that wasn't super worth it.
The last stop on the Temple Circuit was the Taiyu-In, which had some similarities with the Toshugo. It wasn't nearly as ornate, but also had about four or five levels. It took us to the highest point one would conventionally reach in the Temple Circuit (there are a few more temples that are further remote even further up the hills) which was a cool feeling. All of these temples are pretty standard in not allowing photos in their inner most hall, which is a shame but I guess understandable from a religious perspective. On the whole these temples were such a great exposition of what Nikko is. I guess in theory there were similar places in both Kyoto and Takayama, but for some reason having them all in this little area, a little bit aways from a one-road town like Nikko is just perfect.
This is why we wanted to come here. Both as a little break from the fast pace of Tokyo (or Kyoto before that, though Kyoto is definitely manageable), and as a way to see a part of Japan that most wouldn't on their first (or in my case second) trip. I think if anything Takayama is less traversed. Nikko at the end of the day is doable as a day trip from Tokyo.
I say that as we were at the Murmur Birru Stand from 4 - 5:30pm, of which we could have made a good deal of the way back to Tokyo. But there's things we plan to do tomorrow, namely going a bit more further afield. Murmur by the way is incredible. I will do a list of my favorite "It's so amazing there's an honest to goodness craft beer bar" places, and this is way up the list. The owner brews four beers on sight. They're all decent (we had small portions of all four), including a great spiced brown ale with clove and cinnamon. Their stout was great too. The only negative was it was so craft they don't have any cans and the to-go options were just to fill a mini growler. We took some because Nikko is a fairly sleepy won, but man would I have loved to take a beer from here home.
Dinner at Nikko was a pretty special meal also. The place roughly translates to G. Wagyu, and was conveniently close to the Marriott Fairfield (quickly this was a really fancy Fairfield, and goes to show what a tourist spot Nikko is for it to have a Marriott branded hotel). The place was immaculate - effectively a steakhouse where you order a cut and size - we went for right down the middle, an 8oz wagyu sirloin, and you get that plus the rest of the set meal. Everything was presented with care. The starters were a gorgeously clear beef consomme, a great grilled tomato over a tomato-cherry puree (even I, a noted tomato hater, loved the dish), a few cuts of thinly sliced wagyu roast beef in a light mustard sauce, and them some local fruits. All that lead up to the steak.
We haven't just had a wagyu steak in my time in Japan, and this was so good. So soft, so buttery, cooked perfectly to medium rare. Not too fatty, not too thick. Just melted in your mouth. It was served on a griddle with some burned garlic and potato, but the star was that steak. As a round 2, they ended it with a lemon & garlic fried rice, fried on the same griddle soaking up a little bit of wagyu beef fat. This was an incredible capper. Even the dessert of a crepe filled with a light custard cream was so simple, but so beautiful. I truly enjoyed this meal high in the hills.
Night options are fairly limited in Nikko, especially on non-Weekends. We took a lovely 30 minute walk up from G Wagyu down to the main drag where unsurprisingly, around 9:30 or so, the place was fairly barren. There was one interesting bar Yoruyuza that had some locals inside and a really weird decor of a floor to ceiling wall of manga and board games. Every town needs a bar, and this is Nikko's most dependable, and was a decent way to end the night.
Day 12: Returning back to Urbanity
This was our last day in the mountains on the trip. Five days across Takayama and here, both worthwhile stops on any Japan tour. The morning was spent near Lake Chugezi, reachable by a 45 minute bus. It isn't that far in reality, but the last bit requires about 20 straight hairpin turns as you go from about 1,500ft elevation (Nikko) up to 4,000. The air is a lot cooler and crisper and wonderful.
Close to the bus stop is Kogen Falls, a giant waterfall from the Lake down to into the Daiya River that runs all the way down to Nikko itself. The Falls are quite a good sight, offering some aeriel views from the street level and a great elevator down to a lower platform with river-level views.
Back on ground level, we headed back the other direction to the Lake. Lake Chugezi is quite big. We walked on the edge of it past a bunch of little cafes and a few piers offering swan boat rides. The skies were starting to brighten, the rolling hills of pine trees gave a good quality. What's interesting is right at the corner of the Lake, before it starts the path to the falls, is a Ritz Carlton, like literally a Ritz. Wouldn't have guessed there would be one here, but I'm sure bedrooms in the Ritz facing the lake get an amazing view.
About a half-mile down the lakeside is the Futurasan Temple complex. The complex itself isn't the most ornate or stunning, but has views of the lake on one side and views up a hill with giant cedars on the side, so it was unique in that sense. It works well as a turnaround point. The Lake goes on far a lot longer, and there's a few potentially interesting spots along the way, but we were able to turn back, check out a few stops, grab a coffee by the lake, and get our bus back to get us back to Nikko by 1pm.
For lunch, we decided to just get sushi at the same restaurant as yesterday - not the most inspired but works well as a quick lunch. We wanted to hit a few shops, and get back to Murmur for a couple beers, before needing to check out and grab the 3:19pm train back towards Tokyo. This was easily a pretty lowkey day, but what should you else want from a time in the mountains.
Our time in Tokyo was quite a bit jumpier, even on the "quietest" night of teh week of a Tuesday. For this last part of the Japan trip, we are staying in Shinjuku - one of the most prominent mini cities within Tokyo, notable for being part the main business district, and part the neon lights of Japanese kitsch. Both are true in big supply as we'll get to experience more directly tomorrow.
Dinner was at a Teppanyaki place, where they cook the meal, including a slice of wagyu sirloin, on the tappenyaki grill in front of you. There is something almost serene watching the teppanyaki chefs do their thing on that big flat grill top. The meal itself was a more trumped up version of what we had the prior night in Nikko. The starters were a grilled tomato salad, a lightly grilled scallop and spinach, a great seabream cooked en papillote with a light truffle sauce, then the main event with the customary fried rice following. It was probably not worth the price upcharge relative to the version we had in Nikko, but such is life in a big city.
Post dinner we had our first really late night in a bit, going first to Bar Triad and Bar Trench, two sister cocktail bars tucked away in Shibuya. Both are good, but Bar Trench is another level. It is small, with a couple tables and a bar counter that seats 8, so it took us about 30 minutes to get seated, but once we did we didn't leave for a couple hours. The cocktails were good, were varied, were perfectly poured and smooth, The place is known for an absinthe that they make themselves, so we indulged in that a bit more that we otherwise would've with absinthe. Tomorrow is our last night in Tokyo, and we're already thinking about coming back here vs. another trip to The Bellwood.
The night ended at DJ Bar Oath, which is a underground bar with a small techno dance area. It was about 10-20 people over the course of the night, mostly locals to start, with a closer to 50/50 mix by the time we left. It's the type of place that also would probably require a line or risk serious overcrowding on the weekend, but being a Tuesday it was perfectly good, with relaxed music, cheaper than expected drinks ($4.50 for a highball), and some pretty chill people.
