Nikko Day Trip – Toshogu Shrine and Yuba!

DAY 9

On day 9 of our Tokyo trip we decided to go on a day trip up to Nikko!

Our friends made the train reservations and also picked up musubis, maki zushi, and sakura mochi for breakfast!

After a leisurely ride to the north, we got off at Tobu Nikko Station.

Right outside we were greeted by a doggy, not sure if he was saying “hellooooo!” or “whooo are yoooou?!”

Since we were only there for about half a day, we quickly started the walk up toward the shrine area.

Right around this bridge we saw a lot of tourists also making the trek up to the shrine area.

But then for some reason, the route we went on was very peaceful and serene. We didn’t pass even one person the whole way up to the shrine area.

When we started to see roofs like these, we knew we were getting close!

Then finally we were back among the crowds of people all checking out the – hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil monkeys…

as well as all of the other beautiful art and architecture.

Getting to the top of the Toshogu Shrine was quite a walk, but it really was a sight to see along the way. The shrine is made up of 55 main structures that cover 80,000 sq. meters. Needless to say we were a little winded at the end of the walk but thankfully our friends were prepared and offered us some Aomori apple juice!

After a quick break we headed back down to the town area that we came from that morning.

In the morning when we were walking up to the shrine area, our friend had been checking out the menus of all the restaurants along the street. He wanted to take us to a yuba restaurant and was looking out for the best bargain.

Yuba is basically a very thin film that forms on the top of soy milk when in the process of making tofu. It’s very delicate and if you like tofu, you may enjoy yuba as well!

There were tons of restaurants specializing in yuba set meals in Nikko. Because there were many vegetarian Buddhist priests in Nikko at one time, yuba became a local food of the area. And until this day, it is still very easy to find delicious vegetarian meals up and down this street!

We decided on a place called Sun Field that had a 1600 yen yuba lunch set.

Some of the items in the lunch set included yuba cooked in shoyu and ginger, deep fried yuba with miso, shoyu yuba soup, sesame tofu, deep fried yuba in shoyu sugar sauce, and coffee jelly with yuba.

We all really enjoyed this yuba lunch and would definitely recommend Sun Field restaurant to others!

DAY 1 & 2: Meiji Jingu, Harajuku, Omotesando, Shibuya, Ikebukuro
DAY 3: Mount Asama, Shiraito Waterfall, and Karuizawa
DAY 4: Ghibli Museum, Odaiba, Asakusa
DAY 5: Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Ochanomizu
DAY 6: Tsukiji, Ginza, Akihabara
DAY 6 (Part 2): Kappabashi, Asakusa, Okonomiyaki, Monjayaki
DAY 7: Japanese Baseball at the Tokyo Dome
DAY 8: Ueno Park, Yanaka Ginza, Sengakuji Temple, Beer Museum Yebisu
DAY 9: Nikko Day Trip – Toshogu Shrine and Yuba
DAY 10: Fishing in Tokyo
DAY 11: Kanamachi and Shibamata