Musings

While Central Nikko itself was a pretty sedate small town, we were loath to check out of Stay Nikko Guesthouse. Despite it not having the modern conveniences of numerous restaurants and cafes right at our doorstep — i.e. like at

We stayed two nights at the Stay Nikko Guesthouse, a small establishment owned by a lovely couple who look like they’re in their early 40s. I reckon most visitors to Central Nikko during winter won’t stay overnight unless they are

The performances at Nikko Edo Wonderland are only offered in Japanese. Judging from the audience’s reactions, they were probably very entertaining. Of the four we saw, we all agreed the Ninja Theater (Ninja Action Show) was the best: it simply

One of the main reasons why we opted for two nights in Nikko was to visit Nikko Edomura, or Nikko Edo Wonderland — a theme park and living museum that showcases life and culture during the Edo period. The park,

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,

Our first place of visitation in Nikko today was the Nikko Tamozawa Imperial Villa. According to the venue’s guide, the Tamozawa Imperial Villa was built around the former Edo residence of the Kishu Tokugawa clan, which was brought from Edo

Day 11 of our 18-day trip, and we made the journey to Nikko this morning. The trip itself from our Tokyo hotel involved three train rides, and was planned like this: Basically: Suidobashi Station to Akihabara Station, change platform; Akihabara

We stayed at the Toggle Hotel Suidobashi over the 8D7N we spent in Tokyo on this trip. It was tough trying to find a property that could hold the four of us: either a family room, or a property that

Akihabara — the mecca in Tokyo for all things manga and anime. And since the target demographic is routinely the same, it’s also the city’s famous district for all things electronic! I’m not really into manga or anime these days,

Our itinerary after visiting the Rikugien Garden was to check out the Fabre Insect Museum, but we dropped that as we’d already spent half the day visiting gardens. We headed to the Yanaka Ginza, a traditional Japanese shopping street that

We spent an hour at the Koishikawa Korakuen Garden, then made our way to the Rikugien Garden, a place that we’d originally included as our first stop in the Day 10 itinerary. According to the guide, Rikugien is a circuit-styled

Day 10 and our last full day in Tokyo before we head off to Nikko for the third segment of our trip. We didn’t realize this during the initial planning of the itinerary, but there is a garden situated beside