Should you travel to NIKKO Japan

Japan has been full of surprises. We originally set out to spend most of our Japan trip in the major cities of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. But most of our best experiences in Japan so far have been outside the cities. So we thought, why not venture out to Nikko? One of the most highly regarded trips from Tokyo because of its mountainous landscapes, opulent temples, and famous waterfalls. To see this three hour away rural town could unlock experiences as epic as our other rural Japan adventures. What's going on everyone? Welcome back to Freedom To Explore. Today we're going on an exciting adventure to beautiful Nikko, Japan. We're leaving from Tokyo. We're about to take the train. It's about a two hour journey, so let's do it. So the first hurdle we had to jump through here was figuring out the pass situation. So you'd actually need two tickets. You need the limited express ticket to Nikko, but you also need your either a passmo card or to buy an individual 1400 yen ticket. That was a lot of work to get here. It was a journey just to get on the train. We made it. Let's go get some work done. So one quick thing to note here, while the public transportation is great in Japan, the wi-fi on these planes, and as digital nomads who try to leverage this time of traveling to get some work done, especially not good. And just like that we have made it to the town of Nikko. Let's go explore it. So our first stop of the day is going to be Nikko Toshogu. So when you get dropped off the bus to go to Nikko Toshogu, you'll actually get dropped off at Nikko Furusan. Probably butchering the name. But it is another one of the three major temples here in this area. We have been here for like 30 days now in Japan, and we are a little bit temple bout. And while I do believe that one is incredibly beautiful, you should probably stop by. They do charge to enter, and we didn't necessarily feel like we needed to see it. So we are continuing down this beautiful path with these incredible trees. I think they're massive. You will see in just a moment here why we think that this is definitely one of the better stops if you had to pick one of the three shrines to go to. Is that sign saying that this little temple is as big as that sky tree in Tokyo? I think that is indeed what it's trying to say here. I told you it's pretty magnificent. So this is one of the few mini structures here, and I'm pretty sure that's the same size, right? Yeah. That's the Tokyo Tower right there. Yeah, for sure. This temple is particularly interesting to me out of the like 15 or so we've been to across Japan over the past 30 days, because it's like the most extravagant and like intricate of all the ones and lavish of all the ones we've seen. I feel like most of the temples really represent like Japanese culture being a little bit more modestly stated typically, and they're very beautiful, very serene, and very peaceful. This one's just like over the top and it's like wild, which I think is really awesome. Like look at these intricacies along this building. This is insane. Like this gold work up here that we're looking at right now is absolutely insane. So it's just literally just everywhere. Hope I get a good one this time. Last time we did this, Mikaela got a very terrible fortune. She was a very unhappy camper. Fairly good luck. Okay. Off to a good start. Remember what is the most important to the person and forget all the hateful things you have experienced in the past. Just live your life every day with positivity. If you treat your former enemies with esteem, all the causes of your hardship and struggles will disappear. Your bad luck will turn to good fortune and a brighter future will appear. That was kind of deep. The person you were waiting for, this person will come, but you will have to wait a while. What's that supposed to mean? I don't know. Are you breaking up with me soon? I thought I already had him. So we are now leaving the Nikko Toshogu Shrine. I love stuff like that because it's so pretty and like the history is really interesting. But with the amount of people, it just does not make it enjoyable like at all. People are just stopping in front of you, knocking into you, coming up behind you. It's just so overwhelming and irritating. It just really takes away from the experience. I thought it was going to be nice and tranquil. I didn't think there was going to be anyone here. Yeah, if you saw our Lake Kawaguchi video, which if you haven't, I recommend you doing that. I thought it was going to be a lot more like that. Or we thought it was going to be a lot more like that, where it was just quiet, peaceful. There was a few busy areas, but for the most part, you were kind of on your own, enjoying nature. So hopefully tomorrow, get a little bit further out of the city and get into nature a little more. We'll have a few less people to deal with. We'll get to have some more peaceful time here before we take off. Got hungry. Stopped for some corn glizzies. So hot. Big corn glizzy bite. Oh, it's cheesy. Oh my God. My turn for a corn glizzy bite. Oh my God. Dude, that's so good. Yep. Whatever this sand is behind me, stop there. That's good. That's real good. For our last major activity of today, we're going to go to the Shinkyo Bridge, which is a very famous bridge right outside the main city of Nikko. It has a beautiful, beautiful... Actually, we'll see when we get there. It's a beautiful walk on the way back from the Nikko Toshogu Shrine. I don't know. It's really enjoying. It's a lot quieter. You can smell the fresh air, the trees, the water running. It's just not stinky feet like the shrine was, which is weird. A shrine probably shouldn't... Anyways, really enjoying this moment of being out in nature and being away from all the people we were just next to, and still weirdly tasting that corn glizzy in my mouth. It's so good. So good. It might be a wedding. So I think it's actually a wedding. What a beautiful place to get married at. What the hell? How do you even get this as an option, as a backdrop for your marriage? Damn, just magical. You got to get out of Tokyo. You got to get out of Kyoto. You got to get out of Osaka. Truly some magical, magical places. There's something about the nature and just the serenity of other parts of Japan that just hits so much different and so much harder. So we just got back to Nikko Station to grab our suitcases. We had them stored for a minute, and I'm just enjoying these views. The mountains are coming out from the clouds. Good morning. It is day two of our Nikko adventure here. We're getting a little bit of a late start to the day, but we're just enjoying our moment. It really does. We've been here for 30 days. We just need some time. We've said it many times, but that's the joy of being able to travel for long periods of time is that you don't feel like you have to just constantly be going, maximizing every single day. You have time to slow down and just chill, and we'll see what we'll see, and it'll be what it'll be. Exactly. Bars. So right now, we are hopping into our taxi on the way to the Nikko Station, and from there, we'll move on to the activities for the day. So we just got to the station and are waiting for the bus here, but we've got a few people in front of us. I hope we can make this one because the next one is until, I think, 1 p.m. So Mikaylin doesn't know this yet, but there is a big surprise for her on this bus. On this bus ride. I'm going to leave it at that, but we do get to see a really cool waterfall in a moment here that I'm really excited to see. Apparently, the biggest waterfall in Japan, or the second biggest waterfall in Japan, should be pretty good. So we have made it on the bus, but we're standing, which I don't think will be fun for part of this. Well, first of all, it's 45 minutes. That won't be fun. Second of all, there's another critical piece of this that I don't think we'll wish we'd be standing for. I'm scared. Is that what we're getting on right now? Apparently. This is pretty intense on a bus. It's a little sketch. We're like right next to the edge of the road. This thing's definitely tilting pretty good. We just died. How's the surprise? That we're going to die? Maybe. Wow, that was an experience. That was the jerkiest bus ride I've ever had. Yeah, it was kind of a wild bus ride. I would definitely recommend either doing that earlier or getting to the bus stop earlier so you get a seat on the bus, because standing for the whole time was a little miserable. So we just made it to Lake Juzenji. The bus ride to get here was about 45, maybe 50 minutes in traffic, maybe a little less if you were here on an off day. Now we are making our way to Kagon Falls. Wow, this is terrific. I said, I don't need my jacket. It's not going to rain or be cold. It looks horrible. Hopefully there's an elevator to a better view than what we had. I don't even know if that is a better view. I don't like that. Kind of like a down low view. Or like, you know, seeing it from underneath. I like seeing it from the top. Elevator drops you off in a very interesting smelly puddle. It's very moist. Hopefully this is worth it. I feel like it's going to be worth it. I don't understand why the elevator didn't just extend down here. It's taking more steps. Well, today's just a day of mystery. We have absolutely no idea what we're expecting or what's going to happen. But nothing is going to plan. But, you know, that's been some of our best days here. So I think this one's going to be a great one too. I agree. I think the waterfall is really impressive, especially with all like the reds and yellows and oranges surrounding it and the little waterfalls. It's like a 570 yen to get down here. You get the elevator, but if I get the count, it's definitely worth it. These kids in Japan are built different. What? They all have laptops out here taking photos. I've never seen this in my life. I didn't know it was an option. That's kind of wild. Are they using the webcam? Are they using the... I have no idea. That's crazy. You know, I think we might be onto something here. Kind of a vibe. All right, so we just found this one spot next to the waterfalls. I have a gyoza croquette and I'm very excited. Okay, I'm excited for this. Ready? All right. Oh, she's just diving right in. Gyoza croquette review right here. Coming live. Very hot. I mean, it's good. It's not everything I was hoping for, but it's good. So if you walk just about anywhere in Japan, you'll probably find these little short people with yellow hats on. They're children. So what you're supposed to actually do, because they're always in your way and they have the very brightest hats on, you're supposed to get up to them and then punt the ---- out of them. They're literally everywhere. Everywhere you go, the yellow hats will guarantee to be showing up. That's true. You can be in your hotel bathroom and they just start knocking on the door. I swear to God. It's crazy. It's like, oh, the yellow hats. It's guaranteed to see. If you come to Japan, let me know in the comments. Come back to this video when you go to Japan and say, yep, I saw those yellow hat fuckers. So we had stopped to eat some lunch real quick and then we found out while we were waiting for our food that the last bus comes at 2 45 p.m. Which we just basically got here. And so the food was taking absolutely forever. So I actually just ditched McKinley for a second. Get us in line for the bus to try to get a better spot because I was looking at the line earlier for the last bus and it was ******* clapped out and it was like 30 minutes before the bus came. So trying to get a spot in line. Hopefully this works out. Hopefully McKinley gets her food and has enough time to come meet me. So the next bus isn't for another 20 minutes and look at this line already or what behind me. But also there's all these people over here. So McKinley made it onto the bus and we actually got a seat. So that's really clutch. I did lose my bus pass. Alright, just like that we are back in the town of Nikko. I don't know why but every single time I take a bus ride back from anywhere I just feel like beat. Like that was an hour bus ride and I am just so gassed right now. So we're gonna try to find some sweets because I'm in a sweetie mood. This is pretty beautiful right now though. I do really appreciate that. It does look kind of fake. Alright, got the honey and yuzu. You got the blueberry honey. This is actually so good. Like so good. Yes, we can't have this yesterday. So we already know what we're getting into but I didn't have this one. So I'm really excited. So like I said, all this is yuzu and honey. Can't really see either one of them because it kind of blended with the ice cream but I'm sure this will be good. That's good. Creamy. It's got like a lemony honey kind of taste to it Lance. It's nice.