We left the Tamozawa Imperial Villa at close to 2PM and slowly made our way to the Toshogu Shrine area. Our host at Stay Nikko Guesthouse had earlier advised that we should take the bus to get to the Villa, and once there, we could gradually make our way back to the other places of visitation. How’s that? Well, from the Nikko train stations to the Villa, it’s basically a gentle uphill slope. Sure, you could walk the stretch — it would take around 20–25 minutes — but you would be better served doing the downhill walk instead after visiting the Villa.
The Villa to the Shrine is about a 10-minute walk, so it’s pretty manageable. The Shrine is a memorial to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate whose clan ruled Japan for over 250 years until 1868. There is an admission fee required to enter the compound, so we were content to just check things out from the outside.
A quick look around the Toshogu Shrine area done, the next place of visitation was Shoyoen Garden. However, our guesthouse host advised that there’s not much to see in the garden in winter, so we took her advice and dropped the stop — and instead walked the about seven minutes towards Shinkyo Bridge.
The bridge is regarded as one of Japan’s three finest, and pictures of it against autumn foliage indeed make it look very picturesque. Unfortunately, visiting in winter — coupled with the late afternoon light when we were there — made for a visibly less stellar visual record. An admission fee is required to access the bridge. Being the cheapos we are, we declined to pay the fee and just ogled it from the vehicular bridge instead.
With our Day 11 itinerary in Central Nikko completed, it was a pleasant — if chilly — 7°C walk back to the hotel for some rest before we ventured out again for dinner. Continued in the next post for Day 12 and our visit to Nikko Edo Wonderland!