Japan Day 3: Nikko

On this day, we went to Nikko and rode our first Shinkansen. We decided to try ekiben (train bento). While delicious, it was definitely way more expensive than getting a bento from the konbini. We also got a box of kakinoha (sushi wrapped in persimmon leaves).

Once we got to Nikko, we walked up the hill to see Shinkyo Bridge, and Toshogu Shrine where we realized two things: 1.) Japan has a lot of stairs that we're gonna to have to walk up and 2.) that every school in Japan decided to take their students on a class trip to see the shrine. I can't tell if this is the usual or we'd just happened upon the exact day. In my research, I watched a YouTube video of someone going to Toshogu, and there had also been a bunch of students when she had gone.

After the shrine, we had Nikko's local delicacy -yuba. I love tofu, so I very much enjoyed it. For dessert, we tried some shaved ice and strawberries because I'd heard Toshogu strawberries are the best. Unfortunately, there were no fresh strawberries to be found. Only the frozen ones that came in our treat.

After Nikko, we returned to Tokyo to look for insect bite cream, as we discovered I had 22 mosquito bites, and some aloe for our sunburns. Konbinis do not seem to store bite cream or aloe, so we had to search for a drugstore. Thankfully, there was one near our AirBnb and we found Muhi (amazing insect bite cream) and aloe.

We end our day truly feeling the jetlag, and not knowing just how many kids on fields trips we were going to come across. (Complete album of photos here).