Utsunomiya or Nikko

Our reason for staying in Utsunomiya was to have a day trip to Nikko to see the lake and mountains. The Japanese have a saying that you cannot say that you are satisfied until you have seen Nikko. But the weather forecast was really bad for the next day and we decided not to spend the £50 it would have cost so we cannot now say we are satisfied! Jess and Ryan had one day there but left early on the second day due to the weather.

Instead we spent the day walking around the tourist board's eight 'highlights' of Utsunomiya, one of which was a bare tree......I am sure it's beautiful when in full leaf. It was a bit of a boring day. However, there was more lovely cherry blossom;

It is Buddha's birthday later this week and families were lining up to pray at this shrine then receive some flower seeds from monks. The group entertained the people in the queue.

Someone has a shrine in their underground parking space;

These gravestones have wooden sticks with Kanji inscriptions;

For an adventure we decided to eat dinner at a small place where you choose and pay at a machine;

It issues tickets which you hand to the cooks inside who produce the food really quickly but it was tasty. Lots of commuters came in for their supper on their way home and several ate standing up. We then walked around a high end department store which had a section selling off the peg and made to measure kimonos.