DAY 15 - Around 5:30 I woke up and changed trains in Aomori to Morioka, sleeping the entire time. Finally I got on the Shinkansen headed for Tokyo. My plan was to visit Yoshi today. I had the sudden idea of visiting Nikko, which the Lonely Planet had proclaimed it as "a place worth visiting even in the most worldwind of trips." The problem was that I had passed Utsunomiya station so I had to wait until Tokyo to get off. I called Yoshi, and he told me that he couldn't contact either Mika or Chang Ki so we couldn't go to Osaka or Kyoto this day. Yoshi was surprised when I told him about my decision to go to Nikko, even after 5 hard days of travelling in Hokkaido. I rode the next train, heading back to Utsunomiya. If only I had made the decision earlier, I would have saved 2 hours! At Utsunomiya, I took a local train to Nikko. The ride was about 40 minutes. There were so many tall green trees all over the place. I really enjoyed watching such scenary. After lunch at Mos Burger I crossed Daiya-gawa River to get to the temple area. I bought a "two-shrines-one-temple" ticket for 900 yen enabling me to go to Tosho-gu Shrine, Futarasan jinja Shrine, Taiyun-byo Shrine, and Rinnoji Temple. Tosho-gu Shrine is the resting place of Ieyasu Tokugawa and the tomb area was really decorated. After temple hopping, I returned to Nikko JR station and made a bunch of transfers, arriving at Nagoya at night. Yoshi was waiting for me, and we took the subway. The subway is so expensive! 3 stops costs 440 yen! While walking back to his house, I stopped to buy bread and spaghetti. Yoshi had a rather nice house (definite understatement). I ate the stuff I bought but I was still hungry so got me some rice dumplings before I went to sleep.

Nikko Station

On a Bridge

Tosho-gu Shrine

Final Resting Place of Ieyasu Tokugawa

Taiyun-byo Shrine

Ancient Pagoda

Stone Pillars

White Demon

A Shrine?

Blue Demon