tokyo-nikko-kinugawa onsen

Saturday we started out rather early to be in Nikko by lunch time.

From where we live it took us about 2.5 hours.

I wanted to buy the 3 monkeys ningyoyaki from Mishimaya, but they were sold out when we got to Nikko...

So instead we looked for Sunfield, a shop that serves yuba for lunch.

The shop is pretty tiny so we had to wait at least half an hour.

They only serve this set...2200 yen

Yuba everything! even the dessert has yuba in it.

I was amazed at all the different textures yuba could have.

Delicious.

And then we walked to see several places that Satoshi was interested in seeing.

Kanmangafuchi Abyss, a small gorge created about 7000 years ago from Mount Nantai's eruption

Narabijizo, also known as Bakejizo because it is said that every time you count them you come out with a different amount of them

We stumbled upon Ishidaya, a maker of Jingorosenbei that has been in business since 1907.

And purchased their salt butter flavor and gyoza flavor

I also wanted to try tamarizuke cheese (cheese "pickled" in tamari), so I bought a bottle from Tsuruya

This shop also sold different veggies "pickled" in tamari.

On the way to the Tobu Nikko Station, we were able to purchase the 3 monkeys along with 2 tsubaki (camellia) ningyoyaki at Mishimaya, apparently, they made a 2nd batch in the afternoon...whoo!

Satoshi had wanted to ride the newest train Spacia X from Asakusa to Nikko, but they were sold out.

Needing a way for us to get from Nikko to Kinugawa Onsen, he got to ride the Spacia X for 7 minutes!

Luckily we caught this, otherwise we would have arrived at Kinugawa Onsen really late!

We transferred at Shimoimaichi and were lucky to ride the Ichigo (strawberry) train!

Everything even the seats were strawberry motifs

 

pictures uploaded wonky...these are the ningyoyaki from Mishimaya...nothing out of the ordinary, I'm glad we got to try them.

From what I could gather, the Kinugawa Onsen area is not too popular these days, probably because there are not too many trains to take you there.

For this reason, there are many abandoned properties, really sad to see.

Dinner was kaiseki style with all sorts of dishes...we would have appreciated more lighting!

Around the property there were all these different lamps and old Japanese furniture.

I really liked how they used the old castle doors to make a table.

The weather was surprisingly cooperative and turned out to be overcast with the sun coming out every so often.

oh em gee...and I wanna know why our bedding was set up in the closet?! and not in the large tatami room?!

Sunfield

818 Shimohatsuishimachi

Nikko, Tochigi

Closed Thursdays

Hours: 11:00-17:00 

*cash only

Mishimaya

440 Ishiyamachi

Nikko, Tochigi

Closed Thursdays

Hours: 9:00-17:00

Ishidaya

4-18 Honcho

Nikko, Tochigi

Open daily 9:00-17:00

Tsuruya

7-40 Honcho

Nikko, Tochigi

Open daily 9:00-17:30

Isshinkan

542-3 Kinugawaonsentaki

Nikko, Tochigi