Countries Of My Life: Bus Tour in Nikko (Involuntary)

This post will be short, but the day wasn't oO
I woke up at 6:30am to get my 1st train at 8:00am to Nikko. No problem. At 11:20am I arrived at Nikko. The plan was the following: Going to the Kegon Falls, afterwards to the world famous Nikko Toshogu Shrine and if I still have enough time, I wanted to go to the Yu Falls. So I took the bus, like the man from the bus office at the station said and it began.

Nikko at 11:22am

Long story short: After 3.5 hours I was at the Yu Falls. Yeah right, the Yu Falls which are only about 30km away from the station and which were supposed to be my last stop. What happened? I was on the right bus, that wasn't my mistake. The mistake was that I expected to hear the name of my station all the time. But it didn't came because the bus drives to this only at the way back. I found later out that I was near after about 1.5 hours.... Damn!

The Bus - The place where I will be the whole day oO

On the way there was just traffic jam. Like five meters drive, stop for one minute, five meters drive, one minute stop. With that I lost completely my sense of time and just waited for the name of my station that never came. Learned lesson: Better ask the bus driver if and when your station will come.

Nevertheless, a really beautiful nature :)

But not everything was bad. I got a really good overview over the nature around Nikko. Luckily, I could take many photos even I could just make them through the window. I think hiking in this area would be awesome :)

I should just have gone outside ^^

Goal 1 of 3: Seeing Yu Falls

When I got to the Yu Falls, I just heard the name of the stop and jumped out of the bus. The falls and the nature around are very pretty and peaceful by the way. But I had to hurry because the bus needed about two hours back to the station and I wanted to be home about 9pm. So after one hour at the falls, I took the next bus back. After 2.5hours (traffic jam again + different route) I got a later train than planned and was in 3 hours at home.

In summary: I saw much more nature and different areas of Nikko and the surrounding areas but couldn't get out so much than I planned. But you know: A plan works so long until you do it ;)

But there is hope: I will come again to Nikko with friends in winter. Then I can see the monkeys bathing in the hot springs, there will be (hopefully) snow and I will finally see the Nikko Toshogu shrine. This will be my first stop and it's just about 20 minutes to walk from the station. Or I take the bus ... naaahh, walking is healthier :D