Today, we travel to Nikko. The name Nikko still makes me think of toy cars, but I am just learning that Nikko Toys of toy cars is a Hong Kong company.

We take the subway to Kita-Senju. It is still unclear to us whether we can buy separate train tickets for the Limited Express to Nikko or whether we should have made reservations in advance. The Japanese train network has several operators, a bit like in the Netherlands. Only in Japan do all those train companies have their own systems of tickets and seat reservations. Those systems are all pretty unfathomable until you’ve used them once. You only understand it when you see it, so to speak. Also, different companies have different ticket offices; in some places, they even have different buildings (like in Nikko, where JR East’s ticket office is 200 meters away from Tobu’s). May we be happy with our public transport card. On the other hand, Japanese trains do always run, and on time, too.

In the end, when we leave the station in Nikko, it turns out that we did something wrong after all (technical story) and kind of moonlighted.

We leave the station and look up against the mountains of snow. We are at 550 meters altitude here, says a sign. We leave our luggage at the tattered hotel with a gruff young Japanese man who barely speaks, let alone in English. The amenities in the hotel room are corny, but the decor is great Japanese, and the view of the village with the snow-capped mountains in the background makes up for everything.