Woke up at 5 am this morning but felt like I had a pretty good sleep.   The hotel is very comfortable with large rooms and great water pressure in the shower.   The toilets and showers are always a highlight of traveling to Japan!

After a shower,  had my pastry and iced coffees from the supermarket for breakfast and relaxed for a bit.

After breakfast in the hotel room,  George picked us up and took us to the Toushougu Temple, stopping first at the Nikko Kanaya Hotel,  which is an old hotel where a lot of famous people stayed,  including Albert Einstein and Helen Keller. 

We then climbed up to the temple grounds and spent a few hours touring around.  

At the start is an area for the portable shrines and there was a sign for a festival on 17th.  We noticed them seeing speakers and other stuff up in the area.

After the temple we headed to a very local soba restaurant for lunch.  There was a brief wait but it is definitely a place frequented by locals mainly.   The elderly ladies working there were pretty impressive carrying around big trays of soba and bending down to the low tables!  We had the cold soba with mountain potato paste.

After lunch we did a quick walk the restaurant area where there were some nice trees and an old water wheel.

After the walk we went to grab some sake at a small local liquor store.   We also stopped at a Michi no Eki in town to buy some snacks.

On the way to the onsen hotel,  we stopped at another Michi no Eki near the village,  which had a small local market, onsen and a foot bath.

Got to our ryokan and checked in.  We then checked out the onsen.   This hotel has 4 private onsen (2 outdoor and 2 with open windows) plus the public ones.  Tried one of the outdoor ones first.

After the onsen,  we went for a walk around the village and up to a historical site,  which was where early shoguns had fled to in the past.   It was very quiet and tranquile and there were some exhibits,  explaining the history.

Along the walk we noticed a giant wasp nest on a building, made by those wasps we saw the other day,  stripping bark off the tree.   Looked like they were not at home!

The village we are in is built around a river and is very scenic.  There is an illumination festival going on now where the river and the historic area we visited are lit up at night.

After the walk we took another visit to the onsen and then enjoyed some beer and sake in the lounge with our post onsen popsicle. 

After the snacks and drinks we headed down for our dinner.   Lots of courses in the set menu,  including grilled fish and rice puff, rice with chestnuts and Shabu Shabu.

Was so stuffed and tired after dinner that I ended up going to bed by 9 pm!