Took the car up to Nikko today, one of the most famous tourist spots in Japan.
After seeing all the sights of Nikko we went looking for an onsen, using parts of the Nihon Romantic Highway, which I would have to call one of the most amazing roads I have ever been on.
Check the map for the bit we used – its one way up or down the pass and I really wished I had the GT-R…
Picked up the hire car today – we’ve got it for three days, with unlimited km’s and GPS (which we will definitely need…)
Started the day off as usual:
The freeway up to the mountains were largely uninteresting. The interesting thing to note was that even though the speed limit on the freeway is technically 80, most people do 110 and more. I was getting passed regularly doing 120! Once we got there, we jumped on the toll road (see below) the whole place was shrouded in clouds!
One cool thing is that the toll road to the summit has corregations in it which play music through your tyres… here’s a video of it:
Here’s a few shots from the first station we stopped at on the way up Mt Fuji:
After some fun winding roads, we got to the fifth station – as you can see by the photos most of the mountains were surrounded by clouds so the view wasn’t great. It sure was cold though!
Here’s the car we ended up with – it’s a Mazda Demio (Mazda 2 for the Aussie market) with a dinky 1.3 litre engine. It only just made it up some of the steeper roads!
On the way back down, the clouds rolled in and visibility was pretty bad – when we reached the toll gate, they had stopped about 5 buses and weren’t letting anyone else go up… suckers!
The GPS in the hire car took a bit of getting used to (all the instructions are in Japanese for a start) but the best feature was being able to put in the telephone number of your destination and the navi would work out the route. Very handy!
Starting the day off with yet another canned coffee:
Off to the shinkansen bound for Nagano.
Natalie’s blythe holding one of the reserved seat tickets — booking them is real easy, all you need is some broken Japanese and a JR Rail Pass!
After an epic bus ride (video of which is further down) we arrive at Iizuna. The spot seems to be popular during summer for camping and other activities around the lake. But not at this time of year — it was freezing cold and a fog had blown in creating a very eerie light in the forest.
Some more views from around the lake.
This was the road back – really wish I had the R35 GT-R!
Finally, finishing off with some birthday cake and two presents!
Ok today, it was time to head out to Akiba for the first time (there will be many other trips there during our time in Tokyo!)
Gotta start with a coffee, today it was Cafe au Lait by W Coffee.
Spotted this giant Kewpie mascot in a delivery truck on the way to the train station:
Bike parking — there are heaps of these places scattered around the suburbs.
Arriving at Akiba — this the main street. Apologies for the lack of photos after this point, got a bit of gadget overload and forgot to get the camera out!
Back home for dinner, we went to the local Skylark — which was a nice experience. Dinner for three of us cost 3400 yen which is dirt cheap and we all walked away full.
One of my Akiba collectibles – a Revoltech figurine from the Idolmaster Xbox360 game. Kawaii!
To finish of the day here’s one of several Kirin Original Draft that I had …
