Tokyo Day 2

I got up early as I had planned a day trip to Nikko about a 2 hour train ride north of Tokyo. I bought a pass the previous day so that I could take the train and see all the sites without having to worry about paying for anything while I was there. The train ride was a neat ride through the northern countryside of Japan. It was right at the tail end of Japan's fall, but the leaves on the trees were absolutely stunning in the context of the countryside.

We arrived at Nikko which is a little town up in the mountains. It was a Thursday so the place was pretty quiet with not much going on. I walked up the hill to get to what I came to see, the temples and shrines in Nikko. The temples and shrines are located in a woodsy area that really was a change of pace from all the temples I see in China set in the middle of big cities. The area was really cool and it was a great visit.

When I got back into town there was still about an hour of light left in the day, so I rushed over to Ueno Park to get some pictures before the sun set. This is a large park set in the northern part of the center city area that has its own shrine and a bunch of museums. I wasn't much interested in the museums as I was in walking around. I am sure that about a week before I was there the park was absolutely stunning with all the leaves in reds and golds, but I was still able to get a couple of good pictures of the park.

After going through Ueno, I headed back to the Asakusa area, walked around there for a little bit and headed down an alley to see if I could find dinner. I found this little place that served bowls of noodles in soup and headed in. Wow, for such a little place they had amazing soup and it came with the best shrimp tempura that I have ever had. I nice huge shrimp with a great tasting tempura batter around it, all in all the best meal that I had in Tokyo…thus far.