JAPAN'S REAL SHOGUN! NIKKO
[Music] come on everyone once again here from incredible Japan today we're in a place called Nico we arrived here yesterday it's about an hour and 50 minutes away from Tokyo on the express train so we actually got this thing called the 4-day ni pass which includes the transport here from asakusa station in Tokyo and the return and it also lets you get an unlimited amount of the transport within Nico so a lot of people do that I think they only have available a 2-day pass or a 4-day pass and since we got here yesterday and we've still got two full days now we got the 4-day pass cuz it's going to be 3 days in total and that was $35 per person and in the video description below you can find the link for the Nico pass and this is the amazing view from our hotel can see everything pretty much the snow cap mountains in the background might actually be snowing while we're here so yeah those guys might get even wider later on run and the hotel is really good it's called Nico Station 2 just $55 a night and that also includes a pretty good breakfast so I was doing some editing work here yesterday with the nice views and it's just a small room but not too bad and the bathroom's here car's getting beautiful for the day good morning it's like a planing bathroom that's what we were saying yesterday or a cruise bathroom look it's all like plastic so this is the center of Nico right next to the hotel that we're staying in and that is the station where we arrived where the majority of you will be arriving if you come here got a pretty cool old train Carriage here must be how the original ones were yeah the Tramway was open 1910 and you also have the little bus station here I think that's the Hop On Hop off bus that's included in our ticket so right now we're going to go on a bit of a walk we're here and we're going to walk all the way up and there's a bunch of different temples we'll go to those first and there's also a waterfall somewhere I think then for the waterfall we need to get a a bus though yeah cuz uh I think it's far away from here and since the bus is already included in the pass just uh getting that uh and from what I read uh the bus like a loop that's why by uh I think majority of Tours get the pass here to just travel around niik so one thing that's really nice about n is how quiet it is after the Tokyo chaos yeah it's like a big difference from Tokyo uh because we do see tourists here uh but it's not that many really and like last night when we walked around the town it was like a ghost town because I think many people just do day trips but it's very calm and relaxing I think it's good after Tokyo cuz we love Tokyo but sometimes it was a bit too much overwhelm me so it's basically just this Main Street and all the stores are on the main road on both sides so just the usual really souvenir shops cafes restaurants lots of nice traditional looking buildings so when we came here yesterday the mountains were in the clouds so we weren't seeing it like this even though it's cloudy today looks really awesome yeah but I just remembered that it's not 10:00 a.m. yet so I think uh during this time the the stores start to open around 10 or after that so maybe that's why it's also extremely uh empty right [Music] now [Music] [Music] so this is going to be our first attraction of the day it's called Shinko Bridge yeah I've seen this place in pictures when it's like Autumn and you're getting all the colors of orange things like that I think Autumn would actually be the nicest time to come to Japan yes I think so I wonder how the prices are but maybe I would prefer to come in Autumn yeah since Spring's just starting things are a bit dead it's also not sunny today so yeah it looks a bit more dull than usual still beautiful though Apparently that is one of the most beautiful bridges in [Music] Japan so that statue right there is of a Buddhist monk called shu and he's apparently the first documented person in Nico from around the 700s so I did read that this place was founded in the 700s by a Buddhist monk so I'm guessing it was that monk back there and three of the temples in this complex are UNESCO world heritage sites so this first one is the renoi temple and this was the first one that was established here by the monk that I just mentioned in 766 although it wouldn't have looked like that back then it would have just been like a simple Hut and you got to pay 10 to so this one is 400 we'll have to pay for each one that we go to so it turns out that you can't film inside basically just had these golden Butters but they were absolutely massive a lot bigger than it looks in the picture is this the Zen Garden yes looks lovely doesn't it didn't we have like a little B in our garden was a massive B A big one was about half a Meer old think it was behind the pond wasn't it yeah I did they put the bamboos at the back and I love my parents tried to reconstruct this at our our home in England but many places that you go around the world have Japanese gardens I remember when I lived in Houston one of the main parks there had a Japanese garden famous [Music] worldwide [Music] that is one cool pagod yeah beautiful red with the colors like inside yeah Green's gold so this one is 1,300 to enter and it's considered to be the most most important one I'll tell you why very soon when we get to the place wow so this one is way more impressive so many more buildings also the red kind of style more golden though so these are the monkeys that see here and speak no evil oh okay oh yeah I see the monkeys now that's what it's supposed to represent and there's supposed to be another one of an elephant that the artist I think he drew it without ever seeing an elephant oh really how how is that possible I don't know maybe he saw another drawing I imagine [Music] yeah [Music] man I think this this might be one of the most impressive temples we've ever seen yeah like a complex it really is stunning and impressive so big so much to see look at this gate well not of those dragons yeah I like their the golden ice really beautiful really is beautiful [Music] Masterpiece so we're now going to the main part of the complex which is the main reason why it's so busy with so many people and it's a shrine where to gawa Leu is buried and he's the founder of the too gawa period the Edo period that I mentioned in the other videos so that was a time where Japan was unified under just one rule one Kingdom and yeah the founder of it is buried here important person for the history of Japan so the new series Shogun which we haven't watched yet apparently the main character is based on this guy but he has a different name in the series quite the workout to get here yeah I think it was maybe 400 around 400 steps and there's more so it was his son that ordered this to be built for him pretty much right around the time he died I think he died in 1616 and that's when construction began so this is his grave rain really starting to pick up yeah so he was the one that ordered the Edo Castle to be built where we went in Tokyo where the Imperial Palace is now it was the man the mighty leader there's another queue here maybe people paying their respects to [Music] him [Music] right [Music] so this will be the last Temple so the third and final UNESCO heritage site called futarasan this one will be a lot more emptier than that last one this dude looks cool it yeah happy choppy very happy I wish we could have seen it here when it was covered in snow I'm guessing it was just like a week ago or something this Tory gate was made of bronze in 1799 in Shinto belief and architecture T Gates Mark the boundary between worldly and sacred spaces so I guess that's why we always see them at the entrances of the temples and shrines man it's really pouring it down now the forecast is so bad for the rest of the day and tomorrow though so I think think we're just going to have to go for it and hopefully it doesn't get heavier shows like 90% chance of rain over the next hours the golden bunny so it seems like I'm allowed to film from here at this one at the tooa grave there was also a really awesome main Shrine there but I couldn't fil inside have to come and see yourself so this one is 300 per person and I think it has like a garden too a big area not just the temples wow check that out the bronze lantern from 1292 super [Music] old [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] so back in the center now we just missed the bus to go to the waterfall and it's only going to pass in like 40 minutes time so I think we're just going to eat here we're going to eat near the waterfall instead I think these are all restaurants we have no problem for finding food around here I know this one's a bakery since 1873 so got some pretty interesting options here seems like there's a lot of sets I don't know if they have a specific name for this kind of thing Bento Box bento box that's the one yeah where's the guoa okay I think we'll get that for starters 440 I might get this Tori sober 930 noodles with chicken so noodle soup has been my goto in this colder weather this one looks amazing just like the others that I've had dad got something different sausage sausage is what is that little thing that's the shrimp in it shrimp temp on yours is like mine just with shrimp yes and then I don't know what that is no I think it's potato cat with the Yuba I don't know if they say Yuba or I don't know how they say it but it's a thing that's traditional from this region of niik and it's basically a tofu like um crisp not not crispy but like a layered tofu it's different but it's good I like it so that's tofu on the outside on the inside oh on the inside and then potato on the outside okay from the picture I thought it was going to be the chunky noodles Bento her sorry sorry okay sorry oh pay downstairs pay downstairs okay thank you yeah boxes always look cool that the Miso yeah miso sou rice maybe rice and wow looks sool all sorts of different things yeah tofu uh based uh food I think it's like the specialty of this restaurant and it's all like tofu stuff oh so this is tofu yeah and this so that's a tofu skin yeah looks weird yeah it's different I've never seen it like this before I think I need some soce so sauce maybe you want some of this this this sauce is good I think oh that one yeah it's uh salty very salty yeah so the Bento Box all that was 2,000 right too salty just got to dip it a little bit then mhm [Music] [Music] [Music] so we're at the entrance of the waterfall that we wanted to come to kegon we actually got on the wrong bus don't get on the world heritage bus it does not come here does go to the shrines though and now we're in the snowy mountains that we saw before I had no idea we'd even be coming places with snow in Ni yeah it's definitely been snowing heavy here all the mountains completely covered looks pretty similar to the center of Nico similar kind of layout Main Street with all the stores more like ice actually you're next mom and that over there the mountain is uh Act volcano called NTI really yeah you can hike it not now probably another season funny thing is it actually doesn't seem that cold here in Nico I think it felt colder in Tokyo yeah surprisingly because the temperature here is I think the same but uh maybe it's the wind in Tokyo maybe the wind come from the ocean I don't know there's something different yeah there was a icy cold wind and here there's no wind yeah maybe that's [Music] why a sweet so even the waterfall is covered in snow definitely didn't expect that either don't know if you can see it back there we're going to like a proper paid Viewpoint so it'll be even better nice yeah it's funny cuz uh a few days ago I searched for this place and the pictures were showing snow and I said to you oh I wish it would be like that and that's how it is today so I'm happy yeah cuz we thought that picture was probably from like January not not spring it's it's really beautiful with the white snow that makes up for the dead tree appearance at least how much was it uh five 70 per person okay thank you good job yeah much better from down here yeah we couldn't see all this part before it's like we are in Iceland yeah I think that's the only other time we've seen a waterfall with snow yeah it was kind of similar to this some of them yeah we got water coming down here from somewhere [Music] you going to get some of these finger socks they're fun yeah I wonder if they're more comfortable 500 mL yeah what the hell is that put liquid in there so if you come to the back there's actually another massive waterfall loads and loads of water had no idea this one was there [Music] either [Music] so we come back to where we got dropped off by the bus and everything everything is completely closed now I don't know what time it is it must be around 400 p.m. everything shuts so we're just making our way to a lake which is just right here it's right next to the waterfall I think this is basically what's flowing into that waterfall that we just visited so even here you get one of those amazing massive Gates not only at the entrances to Temples then and there's the beautiful Lake in the background so we're going to try and find a cafe I think Carol saw on Google Maps that there's a nice cafe with the lake view yeah this has been a awesome surprise it all looking like this it's almost like a a pebbly beach that we're on now you can see that the water level would usually be higher there's a pier and actually the waterfall the main part of it it was quite weak the water that was coming out of it if you see which as at other times of the year it's like a really thick waterfall and this is beautiful the calm snowy Lake I think these are accommodations aren't they yeah this is a fancy hotel the RIT but there are other options down here yeah I think it would be cool to stay here maybe in summer it will be cool too do some kaying many things to do and also hikes around here I saw there are many hikes beautiful hikes oh yeah you can hike to the volcano so this lake is a th200 m above sea level so that's why it's like snowy and icy here Tokyo I guess is just the same elevation as the sea [Music] almost so in the 4-day ni pass that we have it actually includes a cruise on this Lake that I thought we were going to be doing in this video but then I found out that it only starts mid April so just in a couple of week's time you'll be able to do a cruise around here I guess they don't really have it during the winter so we were just saying that probably be nicer to stay around here than where we are even where we are is very nice but obviously having a big late like this is a lot nicer and then we could have done the opposite got on the bus from here to the shrines and temples and then stayed around here not sure if this Cafe is going to be open though on Google it says it closes at 5:00 but yeah judging by how closed everything is I'm thinking it's going to be closed I think we're in luck looks like the cafe is the only thing that's open in this entire place right now the lights are on so it was that place back there we saw the lights on and people inside but then when we going to open the door the owner said that it's closed so no coffee for us around this Lake I think where we're staying you can get a coffee and if worse comes worse you can um go to Food Mark 24/7 or a 7-Eleven get some dodgy coffee sometimes pretty good [Music] though so this happens quite a bit on our travels sometimes we'll go to the place where it's popular for day trips but we actually go there and stay there two nights and it's usually kind of like this so very busy during the day and then a complete ghost town at night and early in the morning it's kind of funny to see the difference but we like staying in places like that [Music] too so that's going to be it here from Nico we actually spent all of yesterday here too but it was absolutely pouring it down all day so we didn't even go out we were just doing work so from the window you can see it's way more covered in snow now so probably if you go to that Lake Area it'll be even nicer the snowy scenery and in the next video we're heading to a place called kusatsu We're actually about to head there right now we're getting on the return train back to Tokyo and yeah then we'll head to kusatsu and that place is an on town like a hot spring town which are very famous here in Japan so really looking forward to that they also have the onson towns near here you can get like a bus there in the center and it'll take you it's not that far we just didn't go cuz we're going to co atle right now so yeah we'll leave it for there so that'll be where the next video is coming from so if you like this one just drop a like on the video as usual subscribe see you more videos like this and we'll see you in the next one [Music]
2024-04-23 16:29
