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+<!-- Generated file, you may edit and discard src/inc/nikko.md :) -->
+<section class="table-of-contents">
+<nav class="capital">
+<ol>
+<a href="#top">back to top</a>
+<li>
+<a href="#exploring-nikkō" id="toc-exploring-nikkō">exploring nikkō</a>
+</li>
+</ol>
+</nav>
+</section>
+<span class="date">
+2023-04-30 (2 days)
+</span>
+<!-- TODO: header picture? -->
+<p>Before leaving home I had gotten myself an international Drivers
+License, that gives you a permit to drive in many countries (outside the
+EU) for up to 3 years. It only costs 15 EUR in Berlin and I had set the
+soft goal of driving in Japan at least once.</p>
+<aside class="notice">
+The international Drivers License, as it will turn out later, was
+entirely unnecessary for me.
+</aside>
+<p>For my first destination I chose <a
+href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikk%C5%8D">Nikkō</a>, another
+common day trip destination from Tokyo that I had not done and
+conveniently located along the Tōhoku Shinkansen line. My plan was to
+take the train to Utsunomiya, rent a car from there and continue towards
+Nikkō, with the eventual goal being a hotel at the shores of
+Chuzenji-ko.</p>
+<p>So I start the day nice and early on one of the first trains out of
+Ueno terminal. It’s another grey morning in Tokyo with the weather
+forecast promising sunshine for the next day at least. When I arrive in
+Utsunomiya though, none of that is in sight at all. Quite on the
+contrary it is pouring down as I leave the station building. Luckily I
+have my umbrella from the last trip with me, so I quickly orient myself
+and find the tiny Toyota Rent-A-Car office not far from the station.</p>
+<!-- TODO: look at line spacing when using footnotes -->
+<p>At this point my biggest fear is the interaction with the staff
+there. I am very much aware that I don’t speak enough Japanese<a
+href="#fn1" class="footnote-ref" id="fnref1"
+role="doc-noteref"><sup>1</sup></a> and they won’t be super competent in
+English<a href="#fn2" class="footnote-ref" id="fnref2"
+role="doc-noteref"><sup>2</sup></a> for us to be much of any help to
+each other, should there be issues with my reservation or documents.</p>
+<p>So I enter the store and approach the woman at the counter with my
+phone in hand to show her the reservation code. I was not aware at the
+time, that Toyota also has a version of their website in English, but
+because I booked through the local version the emails I received were
+all in Japanese as well. She confirms my booking through her computer
+and asks me for my passport and license, so I confidently give her
+those, including the International license. I know immediately that
+something is wrong. Her expression of confusion when she sees the
+admittedly pretty retro looking license says it all: This won’t do.</p>
+<p>She goes to the back and after some back and forth she returns with
+another woman, who I interpret to be her superior. She asks if I have a
+translation of my drivers license into Japanese. Now it is my turn to be
+confused. I simply point at the International license she is still
+holding, but am well aware that it isn’t a <em>Japanese</em> translation
+at all.</p>
+<p>So rather than a car, I only receive a polite “sorry” and have my
+booking fee refunded to me. I come back out into the rain with no idea
+how to even get to my hotel later and if it even makes sense to go at
+all.</p>
+<p>I reconvene to the station Starbucks to do some research on what
+acutally went wrong. I figure out that some countries (among them
+Germany) don’t actually need anything more than a translation of the
+local drivers license into Japanese issued by the JAF<a href="#fn3"
+class="footnote-ref" id="fnref3" role="doc-noteref"><sup>3</sup></a>.
+This costs ¥4000 and takes up to 2 weeks (according to their website).
+So there is no way I can work this out today.</p>
+<aside class="notice">
+I applied to receive a translation on the same day from that Starbucks
+and received the notification the next week. It seems that 2 weeks is a
+very conservative estimate. A curious details is that you don’t receive
+a PDF, but instead a button to issue 7ELEVEN “Net Print Service” codes
+(that are one-time use only), which you then take to a convenience store
+and print out on their printer.
+</aside>
+<p>Now that I am dependend on public transport my schedule is a lot more
+constricting. The hotel I booked is served by a bus that runs every
+hour, though only until 1800. This means I have to be careful how I
+spend time around today’s destination: <a
+href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrines_and_Temples_of_Nikk%C5%8D">Tōshō-gū
+et al</a></p>
+<h2 id="exploring-nikkō">exploring nikkō</h2>
+<!--
+- check diary (i think i kept one around that time)
+- pouring rain
+- wanted rent car
+- german international drivers license doesn't work in japan
+- ordered japanese translation from starbucks in uchinomiya?
+- decided to move on with trains
+- explored temple grounds in nikko
+- last bus to hotel
+- ordered dinner into the room - gyudon
+- bath looking onto drive way
+- simple japanese breakfast
+- didn't take free bus to station
+- senjogahara (lol monogatari)
+- walked along lake shore
+- twin-dragon falls(?)
+- walk through national park(?)
+- was a bit afraid because of the bear signs
+- recorded my walk through the "wet lands"
+- 20km covered on foot that day
+- took the bus back from onsen town (need to find name)
+- express train from nikko -> ueno, forgot to get express ticket and had no
+cash, conductor was annoyed but i could stay on board until tokyo bc it was all
+that was next stop anyway
+
+travel notes:
+- shinkansen from ueno
+- train to nikko
+- bus to hotel
+- walking to senjogahara
+- bus to nikko
+- express train to ueno
+-->
+<section id="footnotes" class="footnotes footnotes-end-of-document"
+role="doc-endnotes">
+<hr />
+<ol>
+<li id="fn1"><p>hardly any tbh<a href="#fnref1" class="footnote-back"
+role="doc-backlink">↩︎</a></p></li>
+<li id="fn2"><p>unless you are lucky, which I will be today<a
+href="#fnref2" class="footnote-back" role="doc-backlink">↩︎</a></p></li>
+<li
+id="fn3"><p>https://english.jaf.or.jp/driving-in-japan/drive-in-japan/about-dltas<a
+href="#fnref3" class="footnote-back" role="doc-backlink">↩︎</a></p></li>
+</ol>
+</section>