Japan 2025 - Day 11: Nikko

We were out the door at 5:30 AM, trying to catch a 5:39 subway from the station across the street. We were fairly sure the 5:49 would also work, but wanted to have some buffer in case we had trouble finding the correct train/platform in Asakusa Station.

It turned out that the station didn't actually open until 5:40, so we're not sure why there was a 5:39 train.

The Tokyo subway system is thorough, and also very confusing. I literally cannot imagine trying to navigate this without a smartphone.

At Asakusa, we took the Tobu line headed up into the mountains, about two hours north of Tokyo. It was a bit confusing to get tickets, as our transit cards would get us on the train, but we needed to buy extra tickets to reserve seats on the express train.

The ride north was rather uneventful. We all got at least some sleep on the train, and I wrote the blog from yesterday. Most of the trip was through empty farmland, with hills in the background.

As we approached the end of the line in Nikko, the snow-capped mountains came into view. Some of them had been visible in the distance on the way up, but I don't think it occurred to any of us how far up in elevation we were traveling today.

When we disembarked and saw the snow on the tracks, we realized that obviously it would have snowed here the other day/night, from the storm that gave us flurries down in Kyoto.

Nikko is in Tochigi Prefecture, which is apparently the strawberry capital of Japan.

Walking out the station, it felt a little bit like being in the mountains of Colorado, or maybe even Switzerland; it was fairly warm and sunny, with clear skies, but there was plenty of snow in the distance.

It was just after 8:30 AM, and the town was still tranquil. Most businesses didn't open until 10 AM, which wasn't ideal because we'd obviously missed the hotel breakfast this morning, and there wasn't much open at the train station that early, either.

We started slowly heading up the main road through town, up hill, making note of places to visit at the end of the day on our way out.

Being in no particular rush (our train back to Tokyo wasn't until 6:41 PM), we strolled through some side streets, admiring the shrines of all sizes.

We also learned about this new (to us) concept of a Disaster Prevention Park. There are apparently dozens of these in Tokyo, also.

We eventually got bored of the small side streets, and returned to the main road. This is the former city hall, now turned into a sort of park. Officially, it's "Kyunikko Shiyakusho Memorial Park".

We finally found a coffee shop that was open before 10 AM, and sat in the front window while we tried to figure out where we were going to eat.

By the time we finished our coffees and tea, it was almost 10 o'clock anyway, so we backtracked slightly to a bakery and then dropped our bags in a locker at the visitor information center, across the street.

After gorging on bread-related late breakfast, we walked back up the hill, stopping at the Shinkyō Bridge to admire the view. To actually walk on the bridge, one would have to buy a ticket for about $2, and then cross back to the start and walk around anyway, as the far end of the bridge was fenced off.

We were following a walking path route from a map on the Nikko tourism website. The first obstacle was that the sidewalk was occasionally full of snowbank. 

The second obstacle was this crew painting the cobbles in an intersection, but they let us walk over it and go down a side street.

I got briefly distracted watching this small construction site where carpenters were carving some joinery.

The third obstacle was that this temple was for Buddhists only, which was a new one.

The path eventually led us over the Daiya River, which flows down from a lake farther up the valley.

Over the river and to the right, we encountered our next obstacle: lack of proper footwear for a hike in the snow and ice.

The path along the river gorge (officially the "Kanmangafuchi Abyss") was lovely, and the snow had been packed down by countless shoes, so it wasn't that bad, even in sneakers.

After about 3/4 of a mile of mixed snow, mud, and ice, we crossed back over the river at the Dainichi Bridge.

It was a short walk up to the main road again, where we immediately hopped on a bus that take would us farther up into the valley, toward Lake Chūzenji.

As we climbed higher and higher, the roads got sportier and the snowbanks got taller. The switchbacks are so severe that the road turns into a two-lane, one-way loop near the top. That bus driver was a real pro.

We got off the bus at the end of the line, just a few blocks from the lake.

The real attraction (apparently) is Kegon Falls, a short walk to the east, so we made our way in that direction. It was quite cold and windy, although the sun did its best to mitigate the situation.

The waterfall spills nearly 100 meters in a single drop, which apparently is enough to earn it the 23rd spot on the list of waterfalls in Japan.

Somewhat grimly, I've just learned from reading Wikipedia that it's infamous for being a choice location for suicides, which explains why the viewing platforms were penned in by chain-link fencing.

After spending a few minutes admiring the view, we returned to the small town (technically still part of the city of Nikko, I guess) to look for something to eat for lunch.

We chose a local restaurant based largely on the pictures of food in the front window. I think it was this place, but I'm not 100% sure. Hilariously, pasting that Japanese name into Google Translate yields "Tourist Restaurant". (It was decent, and incredibly cheap. Like 3900 yen for all four of us, which is about $26).

Having warmed up from the inside and outside, we scurried over to the lake, dodging puddles of slush on the sidewalks. The wind was literally howling through the trees, coming off the lake, so we didn't linger long.

Apparently the G7 Ministerial Meeting on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment was here, in June 2023.

It was easy enough to get a shot without the G7, though.

Just to our right, the Ritz Carlton overlooks the lake; I'm guessing that's where the meeting was.

Just up the shore to the right, dozens of swan boats were piled on the beach, awaiting warmer weather.

Not having dressed for winter, we hustled back to the bus stop and took the next available bus back down the crazy switchbacks, almost to the Shinkyō Bridge.

From there, we walked up into the shrine/temple area of the National Park.

It was about 3:30 PM, so the temples were winding down for the day, although the crowds were still plenty thick.

We didn't go in any of the shrines, as we'd kind of had our fill of shrines by now, but they're still beautiful to admire from the outside. (It always costs several hundred yen to get in, cash only, too.)

Up here in the woods, too, the snow was lingering, sheltered from the melting power of the sun. There was supposed to be a lovely garden in the middle of this temple, but it was closed (we assume due to the snow blanketing everything).

Instead of going in, we enjoyed a lovely (if muddy) walk through the ancient cedars, following the paths between the various temples.

These white, zig-zag-shaped papers hanging in some places are called shide, I've finally learned today.

It got crowded in a few places, as temples were closing and shoving all the tourists out onto the paths.

There was still plenty of daylight left, so everyone seemed to have the same idea that we did: just stroll around in the woods before heading back to the train station.

We took a circuitous route back down to the bridge; the sun was almost behind the rim of the valley at 4:30 PM. We figured it was going to get dark and cold quickly, so we began our slow walk back to the train station, stopping to shop and eat some snacks along the way.

As Nikko switched into nightlife mode (joke), a few enterprising vendors attempted to capture some of the foot traffic going by.

The most popular choice, by far, was... the pudding shop? It was 5 o'clock, which was when they were supposed to close, but the line was out the door and down the side of the building.

We shopped around a bit in the plaza by the train station, glad that the crowds were thinning as trains were departing. Eventually, we all picked up some dinner options to bring on the train back to Tokyo.

We were on the Spacia X limited express again, but this time the train had a car with private rooms.

It was definitely worth the upgrade (not that I remember how much it was) to enjoy our dinner in peace.

Tomorrow, we're going to soak in some art culture in the morning, then going to a baseball game in the afternoon.