nikko-utsunomiya-tokyo

Breakfast, like dinner was nicely portioned, so I was able to finish my food

I think I've told you before but this type of fish makes me nervous, I never eat it as nicely as Satoshi does

assorted foods including salad and lots of pickles

Tonjiru (pork soup)
 

We caught the JR train from Nikko to Utsunomiya.

We've been wanting to try Utsunomiya gyoza for some time now, maybe from when we lived in Osaka?!

the gyoza statue at the station...

Apparently Utsunomiya has one of the highest consumption of gyoza in Japan

So we started at the #2 ranking gyoza shop...Min Min

And were the 4th in line because they open at 11:00 and we arrived in Utsunomiya at 10:30-ish

They only have 3 types of gyoza on their menu, pan fried, deep fried and soup gyoza.

Since we planned to try another place, we only ordered 1 order of pan and 1 order of fried.

This passed the gyoza snob's test...these are a little small, but the outside was super crisp

The fried was nice too, delicate outside and crisp

360 yen (tax included) each.

Then as we walked to the next shop, we stopped to visit Futarasan Shrine...and climbed up all the stairs to the shrine (you can kinda see it in this picture)

And then went to #1 ranking Kouran

And ordered 1 order of yakigyoza…350 yen (tax included)

1 order of fried, and decided we were done trying gyoza and would have some beer with these….350 yen (tax included, 580 yen (tax included) for the beer.

The yakigyoza also passed the gyoza snob's test.

The fried gyoza's wrappers were a bit too thick for my liking, but the filling was delicious with a hint of ginger.

There are so many different shops and styles of gyoza in Utsunomiya, Satoshi said he would definitely enjoy trying more if he lived here.

After lunch we walked through Orion shopping arcade which we had stumbled on

And went to look at the new light rail.

Satoshi said that most cities are getting rid of their light rail systems but Utsunomiya is the only city that brought it back after 75years! 

After seeing Pallet 0810's fruit sandwiches on social media, I really wanted to try them and was happy that they were in Utsunomiya

Even if we were full from lunch, we stopped in to try the fruit sandwich, pricey! 1680 yen for the coffee and sandwich plus 400 yen for the strawberries!

Happy that they put 6 strawberries in each slice!

They ask that each person in your party order something, so since Satoshi "had to" order something he chose the strawberry parfait...1980 yen plus 550 yen for coffee.

Tochiotome is one of the varieties of strawberry in this area, I often buy it in Tokyo and am glad they used it for these sweets.

Since my photos uploaded wonky, this is the JR Nikko station.

It was declared a historical building so the insides are like you slipped back into time.

There is a room, the White Room, on the 2nd floor of the station, check out the beautiful chandelier.

From Utsunomiya it was about 3 hours or so back to Tokyo.

Even though it was fahreezing, we were glad the weather was fairly nice and we got to see, eat and do all we intended to.

If you'd like to see more photos/videos, please look here.

I hope you enjoyed this adventure as much as we did

Kouran

1-24 Honcho

Utsunomiya, Tochigi

Hours: 11:30-19:45

Min Min

4-2-3 Babadori

Utsunomiya, Tochigi

Hours: 11:00-20:00

Pallet 0810

inside Paseo 1F

Utsunomiya, Tochigi

Hours: 10:00-20:00*

Open when Paseo is

kinugawa onsen-nikko

 Yesterday I mentioned that lack of transportation might be the cause of Kinugawa Onsen’s popularity, but Satoshi said that a lot of these hotels were built to accommodate group tours and when the “bubble” era burst, the market changed and more people started to travel on their own, not in groups.

He said the cost to maintain the huge banquet spaces are probably what led to the downfall of a lot of these yuurei “ghost” hotels. 

Plus, to demolish the building would also cost a lot, still so sad to see

Breakfast was kind of disappointing, especially the hard.as.rock lotus root and super salty salmon broiling away in butter....

I ate as much as I could, but left quite a bit too...sorry

We left a little after 9 and it was sunny and flurrying!

On the way to Nikko, we were lucky to see the SL Taiju, a steam engine that runs between Nikko and Kinugawa Onsen.

We arrived at Nikko just in time to stand in line for lunch at Meiji no Yakata.

Apparently this property was previously owned by F W Horn the founder of Nippon Phonograph Corporation, which manufactured gramaphones and records for the first time in Japan.

Aoi Shigemitsu also used this house when his was destroyed in the Great Tokyo Air Raid.

Lunch consisted of pumpkin potage

baguette with butter

cottage cheese salad

omurice...so ono with lots of shrimp in there!

Satoshi had their fried shrimp lunch! (no photo)

cheesecake and coffee...our lunch came out to 8030 yen (tax included), pricey but it was nice to be able to dine like this especially after the pandemic

After lunch, we dropped off our bags at the hotel we would be staying at and started exploring Nikko.

It had been almost 30 years since the last time I visited Nikko and Satoshi wanted to explore in depth, for tour research purposes 

Toshogu, Tokugawa Ieyasu's shrine, his remains are apparently at Kunozan.

Be prepared to climb lots of stairs!

it was a good way to work off lunch...

There was a temple, Yakushido, where you can hear the (Nakiryu) crying/roaring dragon

Nearby is Taiyuin.

lots of stairs here too, we also experienced a size 3 earthquake while the priest was explaining the wall paintings.

he said it was the wind...not!

Across from Taiyuin is Futarasan Shrine.

All sorts of areas at this shrine to pray for luck, to find a good match, even four leaf clover plants!

Then we went to see the 3 Buddhist statues Senju Kannon (1000 armed Kannon) of Mount Nantai, Amidanyorai of Mount Nyoho and Bato Kannon (Horse Headed Kannon) of Mount Taro which are housed in Sanbutsudo, a hall on the property of Rinnoji.

These 8 meter (26 feet) statues are something to see!

NOTES: Be prepared to climb a lot of stairs as well as remove your shoes many times when visiting these temples.

 

A lot of the stairs do not have handrails so be careful, especially if it rains or snows

Also, many of these temples do not allow photos, so be aware and respect the rules.

It was fahreezing all day with flurries and super strong winds.

We checked in, bathed in the hot springs and readied ourselves for our kaiseki dinner.

This was an assortment of seasonal foods.

With kaiseki, I usually end up giving a lot to Satoshi, since I cannot finish, but these dishes were perfectly portioned, so I was able to eat my portion.

It was quite a long day, but at least Satoshi was able to see all that he wanted to.

Meiji no Yakata

2339-1 Sannai

Nikko, Tochigi

Open daily 11:00-19:30

Hotel Seikoen

2350 Sannai

Nikko, Tochigi

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