Our first stop after leaving |Tokyo was the temple complex at Nikko which has been a holy place for both Buddhist and Shinto religions for many years.
​We were able to park our motorhome in a nearby car park for about £3 for the day.

We started at the huge shrine/temple complex which goes on almost forever and has magnificent architecture set amongst massive pine trees. We were far from alone - there were the usual groups of schoolchildren (each group with a similar hat) plus loads of local tourists and quite a few gaijin. As we approached the complex from the carpark a group of eleven-year olds stopped us for a survey. They were clearly practising their English - the questions were typed in English - and they wanted to know our names, where we were from, to name something famous from our country, to identify an element of Japanese culture we admired, and our favourite Japanese food. We then had group photos all round. Lovely kids and so polite, they had not understood us when we asked how old they were and a Japanese lady stopped to translate and we noticed that after our interview one of the girls ran after the woman to say thank you very much. Would we get that in UK I wonder.?

We had lunch at a local restaurant near the complex: duck with udon noodles for me, cold soba noodles for Sheila, with beer altogether ¥2,600 (£20). We then did another set of shrines/temples and walked round the garden of what used to be the country house of the US Trade Representative. The five-storied pagoda was impressive, and we saw a wild deer grazing and ignoring the huge crowds.
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Nikko also has its share of museums to visit so there is plenty to keep you occupied for the day here.

`lunch for two in Nikko

Everywhere is beautifully maintained

Nikko's 5 storeyed pagoda

 We then went about 20km south to the Niko Niko Honjin michi no eki for the night. A nice road station with the usual farmers market,  Seven11 and a tourist office.