Today was Nikko day. Nikko is to the north of Tokyo and takes about a 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to. Half of which is on the Shinkansen (bullet train). It's a mountainous area which still had snow and is just barely getting out of winter. Most plans were still dormant from my opinion. It was still a wonderful day and successful as it was the first on my own. I feel like I should be able to get around inside of Tokyo and most places. I've also been able to communicate a little better with my Japanese. Though I'm still far from great..
In Nikko there are two shrines, a temple, and the botanical garden. All of which I visited while I was there. I also went on somewhat of a random path that ran behind the shrine up into the mountain. Once I crested the top it looked like it went back down into some home area. There wasn't anyone else using this path so I called it good and turned back around there.
As a friend told me before I got to Japan, young girls in grade schools are more willing to use English with a foreigner. I was asked a couple of times to take a picture for them. I get the feeling that most everyone could carry on a conversation quite well if they felt like taking a small risk and trying. Certainly better that what I can do in Japanese!
Anyways here's a bunch of pictures. I realize that most of these might mean nothing to you. But they're for me to record a little bit so I don't forget. You just get suckered into looking!
Also meals of the day: Lunch - Udon noodles with tempura shrimp. Super awesome. Dinner - Bento to go since I got back fairly late and wanted to get to the hotel.
Tomorrow I'm off to a cooking class. I'll also reserve a seat towards Kagawa and hopefully be able to mail some things home that I picked up so I don't have to carry them.