Weather horrific again this morning (Monday if you're keeping score) but needed to be up and at 'em fairly early doors as we have (several) trains to catch. Hakodate to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto, change at Sendai, then Utsunomiya then, hopefully, Nikko. Fingers crossed.

Anyway breakfast was excellent as usual. I got a genuinely helpful Japanese lesson from the lovely waitress when I asked what the white jelly-like substance was that Tracey was eagerly trying to eating her weight in. It was 杏仁豆腐 - Annindoufu, apparently - she wrote it down for me, together with a drawing of a fish. Nice lady, she also made sure I didn't trip up over my own shoe laces. No, really. I need a carer! Anyway went back up to grab a meishi and my phone for a photo: had to be done.

Checked out of the hotel (again - thoroughly recommended) and then the usual trammage to the station to get the train to Shin Hakodate and begin the long trek back down South.

Not a whole lot to report about the journey. Unsurprisingly everything ran on time, the Shinkansen was smooth and comfortable as ever and the whole experience was all rather pleasant. I suppose trying to upload photos to Facebook was a bit hit and miss due to the amount of tunnels but that's firmly under the heading of "First World Problems; Suck It Up Princess". 

Changed at Sendai and then got to Utsunomiya Eki around 3pm. Short walk and an even shorter wait to change trains to the local Nikko line. In keeping with the historical nature of the place, the Nikko train was completely retro (apart from the high tech driver's compartment of course!).

Pulled into Nikko station at around 3:45pm after four different trains and about 6 hours. The place is beautiful even if the town centre is tourist shop central. Bit like Hakone was last year!

We starting dragging our suitcases up what would have been a hell of a hill to the hotel but eagle eyed Tracey spotted the shuttle bus. Just as well as it's a lot further and steeper than it looks on the flat map. The shuttle bus driver was really friendly, checked our reservation with the hotel then sorted out our cases and ushered onto the minibus, along with a few more tourists who rocked up along with us. 

Ten minutes later and we were up the hill and into our hotel. No idea why there is a car in the foyer but I'm sure it makes sense to someone.

Booking in was fairly smooth albeit with a few 「すみません。もう一度もっとゆっくりお願いします」 ("Sorry can you please repeat that more slowly") chucked in for good measure. The reviews did say that English wasn't much of an option which turned out to be absolutely true. Not a problem as it's good to have no choice but to give it your best shot with no safety net once in a while.

Right - I won't lie, the staff were great and the hotel room was fine, if a tad basic. But the "outside bath" we'd booked was a real disapointment.  The photos on the web site make it look like you get an idyllic rock pool type bath surrounded by rockeries. That does exist but those onsen are separate from the rooms, expensive to book, and you don't get much time. What you actually get in your room is effectively a wooden box on the balcony fed by a plastic pipe. And a shower hose on the wall. (And, as it turned out later, the noise of a generator outside in the car park running all night. Both nights.) Not ideal and not what we'd expected. You can see the difference in the photos below. 

I was annoyed with myself for booking the room and Tracey was trying to put a brave face on it despite her obvious dissappointment. Bit of a minor to middling divorce. 

A little later, still less than happy, we decided to walk into town to see if we could get a bottle of sake from a conbini to drown our sorrows. Important note here - everywhere else in Japan you can throw a rock in any direction and hit a conbini. In Nikko we walked all the way into the town centre, round the town centre and then up the other side of the hill for quite a way before we found one.

We were knackered.

And still pissed off about the bath.

There was "tension".

Still can't remember what actually pushed the nuclear button. One minute we were both standing grumbling outside the 7-11. The next minute we were at DefCon1.

One Major Divorce, application for Decree Nisi with an option for a Decree Absolute later and a shouty stompy English woman disappeared on her own into the night, leaving behind a not-even-remotely-silently cursing Scotman. I must have looked like one of the drunk guys outside Glasgow Central. Not a good look. Not a good anything. 

Quickly bought some sake and crisps (sod that - we'd come all that way) and, thinking she couldn't have got that far, retraced our path. A few minutes later the adrenaline wore off a bit and I was starting to get a little worried. No sign of her. A few more minutes and I got properly worried. Tracey has a Diploma from the University of "No Sense Of Direction". With Distinction. Bogging off into the night, in a town she didn't know, in a country whose language she didn't speak, with no Internet connection (I had the pocket Wi-Fi in my bag) didn't seem like it was going to end well. I marched on with an increasing sense of foreboding.After what seemed like an age later (although it was probably only 15 minutes) I got back to the river at the bottom of the hill to our hotel.

And could make out a demin-jacketed figure waiting on the bridge. 

Reliving the time that an 8 year-old Alex wandered for a mile along a busy road into the local town in France rather than go to the campsite shop as instructed, or a very tiny Louise decide that HMV in Colchester was boring so she'd go exploring the Culver Centre on her own, there was relief.

Then there were words.

Really quite a few words.

"Bloody stupid", "Don't you ever" and "Worried sick" were some of the more repeateable ones.

We both stomped off.

Together.

Five minutes of walking up the (near) vertical hill sapped some of the anger however so we got over ourselves and decided to made the best of it. To be fair, once back in the hotel the evening meal buffet was absolutely phenomenal. A huge amount of choice including endless Spider Crab legs which were a bit messy to eat but worth the effort. And they had melon soda too so that helped the mood considerably.

Bellies utterly stuffed once again we spent the rest of the evening in the tub drinking lots of sake and watching Sabrina on Netflix.

To generator accompaniment.