Day 1 of Winter Travel in Nikko ~ SL “TAIJU,” Kegon Falls, and Lake Chuzenji

The standard routes from Tokyo to Nikko go to Utsunomiya from Asakusa by the Tobu Limited Express SPACIA or from Tokyo by the Tohoku Shinkansen. However, since I was setting off from near Shinjuku, I decided to take a limited express train from Shinjuku.

I took the “Nikko #1” train, which departed from Shinjuku at 7:36am. This train was a refurbished 253-series that used to be used on the Narita Express.
The red and vermillion colors on the train’s body represent Nisha Ichiji (World Heritage Site of two shrines and one temple, composed of Nikko Toshogu Shrine, Rinno-ji, and Nikko Futarasan Jinja) and Shinkyo Bridge, both symbols of Nikko.

The seats in odd-numbered cars are orange to represent Japanese azalea and autumn leaves, while the seats in the even-numbered cars are blue to represent Kegon Falls and Lake Chuzenji.
The seats are 1,100 millimeters wide, making them quite spacious.
There is also a rather large luggage storage space.

I had a “Yamagata Beef Gyu-meshi Bento” I bought at Shinjuku Station for breakfast.
Incidentally, some trains offer in-train sales of food.

Right on time, I arrived at Tobu Nikko Station about 2 hours after departing from Shinjuku.

There was a Limited Express SPACIA train at the station when I arrived.

The Tobu Nikko Station Tourist Center was right outside of the station.
I bought the “Chuzenji Onsen Free Pass,” which is convenient when walking around Nikko. You can use it to board the Tobu Bus at specified sections as much as you want, and the pass is valid for 2 days.
This pass typically sells for 2,000 yen, but since my accommodations were inside Nikko itself and it was wintertime, I got the special price of 1,000 yen.

Tobu Nikko Station and JR Nikko Station are adjacent to one another. Since each of the buildings has a unique look, it makes a great place to take pictures.