A Day to explore in Honke Bankyu

From the itinerary on November 4, 2025: Take advantage of the day in your beautiful retreat or explore Nikko.

I am no worse for wear after my night on the floor and slept quite well.

Here is breakfast and my name in Japanese. They kept asking me my name and I could never answer, so I finally got smart and took a photo of the name plate.

Today the weather was glorious, so I decided to explore the area and get some exercise to work off the huge meals. By the time I got up the energy to think about taking the bus to see things further afield the pick up times that made sense had already passed, so I decided to explore locally instead.

While I was being lazy having iced tea and enjoying the view, a Russian family came by and we started speaking in Russian. What used to come as second nature was now very difficult after spending about 6 months in Spain and thinking in Spanish. A bit scary to see how quickly language can be lost.

I decided to walk locally to see some of the small shrines- this one was built in the 1600s.

I ended up in a small wood with a suspension bridge over to the road.  At the end of the bridge I turned left and walked along the quiet road for a couple hours just enjoying the scenery and the fall color. I saw quite a few wasp nests, so it seems they might be a bit of an issue here.

They left my bed out, so after returning I took a nap until dinner.

Had a lovely dinner in a slightly different room which included horse meat.  This was the first time I’ve had it and it was quite good- as much as I could tell because the pieces were very small.  As with the rest of the meals I will have in Japan - all portions are small and like a tasting menu.

Dinner also included

Horse meat

Grape wine

Wagyu beef

Pork

Chicken

Soy balls

After dinner I reserved a private onsen.  It was freezing outside, but I took my clothes off, washed and steamed in the hot water- it was very relaxing.

Tomorrow is a big travel day, so I went to bed early.