Day Trip (Another One?!) to Nikko

I was so disgusted with Tokyo that I suggested to Rachel, whom I met up for dinner last night, and she brought me to a really local and nice japanese dining bar, that I want to go to Nikko. She said that's a good choice cos the fare there is ex if you do not have Rail Pass and since going to Nikko involves a train change in Utsonomiya, I can check out the famous gyozas from the area too!

So, I woke up like late today and only reached Nikko at 2pm. And since Japan Guide.com only really reccomended one place to visit, which is the Toshogu Shrine, i only visited this one single place even though the lady at the tourist centre told me you need at least 2.5 hours to cover Toshugu and 2 to 3 other sites.

Turns out Toshugu is gorgeous! The shrine, just when i get sick and tired of temple/shrines/pagodas/tori gates, is so different from the others I had seen. It is so lavishly decorated with wooden carvings and gold color coating!













I'll let the photos speak for itself above, and Nikko is also a really nice place, and it is actually up in the hills and I managed to get a really nice view with the snow capped mountains in the background oputside the train station there!




One of the famed wooden carving that I can grab a photo is the Three Monkeys: Ain't they cute?!






Then, there's this Sleeping Cat that is said to bring good luck! So cute!





Then on my way back, I had 30 minutes before my Shinkansen connection at Utsonomiya and decided to check out the Gyoza Alley (I dun even have to step out to the town to try Gyozas!) And I picked the most expensive item on the menu, so smart right? Cos I thought that one got seafood mah! Turns out when I re-look at the menu, I found the chinese characters seemed to tell me that what I pointed at is Whale. Oh my god! As if my first sashimi experience last night with Rachel was not bad enough! But i reckoned that since it is cooked it'll be ok...When the gyozas came, i kindda realised that the meat looks white and suspect that it is not whale meat per se. My intuition that the guy tried to cheat me was more founded when I paid at the cashier and the girl looked at the handwritings and stopped to think for a minute. As if what was written is a code or something to charge me 510 for whale instead of 290 for normal ones. Anyway, i paid and left and when the guy bowed to me on my way out, I snub him. Who say Japanese are always honest?







I decided to stopped by Omiya and went to buy Shiseido's Tsubaki Shampoo range cos i bought a bottle earlier and realised that it rocks! haha...then, i bought cheap strawberries from this Japanese Carrefour and then blew on Paul Smith, but that's another story...haha, but a preview of what I bought tonight anyway:


Oh! And i just wanna share with you what I had for lunch on the Shinkansen today and the view of Tokyo tower from my hotel!