Woke up around 4 this morning,  probably mostly due to the fact I went to bed at 9 pm, but stayed in bed and feel back asleep until 6:20.  Got up and got packed before heading down for breakfast.  Was a Japanese breakfast that included fish,  onsen egg, natto, rice,  salad and chicken cooked in soy milk.   Very good and a lot of food!

After breakfast had a brief rest to finish yesterday’s blog before heading out.   Along the drive back to the main road we stopped at a dam.  In the little museum we found there were 3 other sister dams in the area and they had a pamphlet where you could collect stamps from all four so we did a mini stamp rally and visited all the dams!

The last dam was down a very narrow and winding road and had a 300m walk from the parking lot.   It didn’t look like it would be much but it was the most impressive!

After completing our stamp rally we started driving back to Nikko, stopping first at a market near a dairy that had fresh milk products so I got an affigato

After the dairy we continued driving and stopped at a bridge, which was apparently a popular spot for suicides.   They have now put up higher barriers but we noticed a bottle of beer and flowers at the end,  which appeared to be a memorial for someone.  The fall colors were more developed here and it was very scenic.

Once back in Nikko, we stopped at the Kanaya Hotel History House,  which was a shoguns residence before being converted to the original Kanaya Hotel in the 1800s.  It was interesting and the gardens were very picturesque.

George then dropped us off at the train station where we picked up a bento for the ride back to Asakusa station.  I booked is a private compartment to enjoy.  I had a chicken bento with a yuzu beer I picked up at the Michi no Eki yesterday.

Once we arrived in Asakusa station we managed to make it to the Asakusa Toei line to Haneda with less than a minute to spare.  It was a bit of a haul down a bunch of stairs but not too bad since we only had carry on luggage.   It wouldn’t have been the end of the world if we missed that train as I booked a later flight.  

Got to Haneda and used their slick self check for the luggage and print a hard copy of our boarding pass.   We then went through security – also a breeze!  Inside the gates there were a few places to eat but not as many as I would have thought.   Ended up hitting up the 7 Eleven for dinner quick bites as we did eat on the train.   I got a roe onigiri, some cheesy corn snacks and a Sapporo.

Pretty big plane for an internal flight… 787.  Not full but still quite a few people and we boarded in less then 10 minutes and the overhead bins are virtually empty.   I could fly economy if I lived in Japan!

Got to our hotel just after 10 pm and checked in.   Was thinking about hitting the onsen but feeling kind of sleepy so just grabbed a beer and relaxed a bit before going to bed.