Here’s a summary linking up all the posts related to our 18-day Japan trip in November 2009. 
The posts with asterisks was updated with some videos after it was first published. Do go see!
January 22, 2010
Japan Trip: Day 5 (18 Nov 2009)
Our 7 day Japan Rail (JR) pass starts from here, 1st trip is to Nikko! I remembered this destination as one of the most difficult to plan in terms of understanding what buses to take, what kind of tickets/passes to buy.
Since we were using the JR pass, we took the shinkansen to Utsunomiya before transferring to the JR Nikko Line and then alighted at JR Nikko station. The station was almost deserted and that surprised me because I thought this place is a popular year-round destination! It was very cold this day!
We were looking around to see where we can buy the Chuzenji Onsen Pass – this pass costs 2000 yen and allows us to take any buses within the designated area (the pass coverage includes Lake Chuzenji). Not finding any information, we went to the JR ticket office at the station to enquire and it turns out that the pass is sold there. After buying the pass and getting a bus timetable, it looks like we had missed the bus and it seems quite a long wait for the next one – the timetable was kinda confusing so I wasn’t sure if I interpreted it accurately.
Knowing that the Tobu Nikko station is just nearby, we decided to walk there to check out the buses available at the station. It was super cold with the blowing wind…brrr. At the station, we enquired on the buses and luckily, it was just a few mins to the next bus. 
We alighted at the bus stop near the Shinkyo (sacred bridge). There’s a fee to cross the bridge but I wonder who will do that – basically you just cross it to the opposite end and then cross it to back where you were.
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