As tempting as a hot bath was this morning I decided to go with just a normal shower. Kaoru was naturally up early and in the bath by 6! We then met up for breakfast at 8 o’clock. This was a traditional Japanese breakfast with several plates of food, and took us nearly 45 minutes to finish. Back to our rooms to clean teeth and we were leaving for the days adventure about 9.

The person at the ryoken desk told Kaoru there was a free shuttle to town where we could get a discount all day bus ticket. So we rushed out to get the shuttle but after 5 minutes it hadn’t arrived. Another person from the ryoken then drove us in their own shuttle, which was great! When Kaoru got the ticket she paid 1000 yen instead of 2000 yen. She had to give our names and they were checked against a list… So an offer only available to people staying at certain places.

We caught the bus to the ropeway and had a hot drink to defrost. The view from the top was fantastic and I played around with some photospheres and panoramic shots. We could see the lake Kaoru and I stayed at last time we were here.

It was then back to the bus which took us to the lake. We went to the Kegon falls lookout and took more shots. Then it was time for some lunch. While walking we came across some monkies. They were quite cute too watch as they walked on the footpath. But when there were 8 or 9 of them following us it was a bit concerning… especially when they took a swipe at your leg!

We found a place for lunch and then caught a bus back to Nikko town. Our next destination was another shrine further up the mountain. We were wondering about the path a bit as it was covered in snow in places and had some fallen trees on it. But we went on and were rewarded with some great views. We found a shrine that was under renovation – however there was a hole in the covering attached to the scaffolding so people could still drop their money in to pray. So we did, and it was my first for this trip.

A bit more walking and we were back to town. After some photos of the red bridge we found a “pub”…I use the term loosely – it was more like a small shop that had food,  ice cream and beer. So after a wind down drink we waddled back to the Ryoken about 530, ready to relax for the night.

Kaoru and I had a bath and we all meet up foot dinner at 630. For a bit of fun we all wore our yukatas (kimonos) to dinner. Again we had an amazing feast of 10 or so different things. We were back to our rooms about 8, happy and tired after a long enjoyable day.