We didn't have too much trouble finding our hotel, which was located in Kinshicho, part of the Sumida ward. It was a huge relief to get there as we were completely exhausted when we arrived. We had a great view of Tokyo from our room on the 22nd floor. The main feature is the under-construction Sky Tree, which will reach 643m when it's done, right now it's around 360m.
The next day we went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum, which showed the history of the city of Tokyo, previously known as Edo. We were very lucky to get an English speaking guide who gave us a free tour for 1.5 hours of the whole museum. It was an amazing museum, full of reconstructions of houses and theatres from Edo times, as well as many incredibly detailed miniature versions of the old city.
The next day we headed out of Tokyo to the Nikko area, famous for its hotsprings. We picked the area because the train company offers a great deal on rail and bus tickets. We started by visiting their famous Toshogu shrines. As well as having the mausoleum of Ieyasu Tokugawa, the founder of the Toshogu Shogunate, it is also famous for its 'see, hear, do no evil monkeys (see picture below). Unfortunately, the weather was terrible when we there, the weather report described it as freezing rain. The shrines were beautiful, but none of the signs had English, so we didn't understand a lot of their significance or history. We decided to come back again the next day, and went to Kinugawa where we staying for the night.
We had booked the Marukyo Ryokan, a Japanese Ryokan, with Japanese style rooms (i.e. tatami rooms that double as your living room and bedroom). It also has its own onsen, or public bath. Once you get there, they provide you with robes called Yukata, that you can wear throughout the ryokan (see picture of me wearing my yukata below). The best things about ryokan's are the onsen, which were wonderful after such a cold afternoon, and the food. We had ordered both dinner and breakfast. The dinner was absolutely amazing. We counted 12 different dishes each including udon, prawn, yuba (thin sheets of tofu, a specialty of the area), beef, sashimi and many veggies prepared different ways. Unfortunately, we didn't take pictures of dinner, but there are some on their website, if you click on the Marukyo Ryokan link above. Needless to say it was a feast, and the next morning, we had an equally decadent breakfast.
Then we headed back to the temples and looked around a bit more. The weather had improved slightly, so it was better. Then we went to our next hotel, also a Japanese ryokan, but slightly less fancy. We also had a great dinner, breakfast and soak in the onsen. The next day we did some more hiking around Nikko, and looked around the town a bit, before we headed back to Tokyo. Below is a picture of their red Shinkyo bridge.
