Leaving Tokyo

Our last day in Tokyo and we made our way to Nikko via a 2 hour train ride. Our bags were a lot heavier with the shopping we did over the last week.

Scattered among hilly woodlands , Nikko is one of Japan's major attactions for both locals and tourists which reflects the glories of the Edo period in the 1600's. It's a world hertiage listed site with historic temples, shrines. lanterns , bridges and towering cedars.

Our train tickets included 2 days of included local bus and train rides to the various attractions. Here's a picture of the local historic bridge we visited

We made our way back to town and again visited a make your own Okonomiyaki restaurant run by a couple of lovel local woman. By now we were highly skilled at the art of making the local Japanese pancake

We also tried one of the local snacks which was a rice floured ball heated over heat beads and then coated with a sauce

The hotel we stayed in was straight across from the train station and contained an Onsen so we spent some of the afternoon in them relaxing then it was back to the room to listen via the internet to the grand final between the mighty Queensland teams( Cowboys and Broncos) over a few vodies and wines then off to dinner at the hotel for a smorgasboard for our last dinner in Japan.

We set off on the Monday back to Tokyo and for our flight back home at 8pm from Narita.

I think that the sleeping pills worked after about 3 hours into the flight

 and as a last 50th birthday treat I was gifted all the duty free allowance( plus a couple I had in my luggage)- wrapped up a excellent birthday week for me in Japan