Day 11, to Nikko

I have now finally left the ‘deep North’ behind me, and arrived in Nikko. It is rather a culture shock for me; in 10 minutes I have seen more foreigners than in the past 10 days. The excessive staring has mostly stopped (well, became less), and the Japanese have a more reserved attitude. In the north, people were often surprised to see a foreigner make the effort to come there. Nikko is famous as a tourist spot with its proximity to Tokyo, so the whole (small) town is tuned to that.

Today I took it easy, and just strolled about a bit. My ryokan is located next to a river, and I took some photos of that river. As you can see on the photo there is also a row of small Buddhist statues lined up, all dressed with red caps.

This evening I tried a Korean restaurant, for the first time this journey. Korean food in Japan is a bit like Chinese food in the Netherlands, or Mexican food in America. It was run by an old Korean woman and had a relaxed and laid-back atmosphere. A TV was turned on all the time and most guests were just drinking a beer and eating some snacks. I met some other tourists from Switzerland and South-Africa here, so I could even speak some Dutch.