A driving Tour of Nikko
Lake Chuzenji and Beyond
Although there are a lot of temples to see in Nikko, there were a few places further out that we wanted to get a look at. It’s possible to take a bus to some of them but it is just as cost-effective and much easier to rent a car and drive around for the day.
Our plan was to drive around Lake Chuzenji to the west of Nikko and then go a little ways up to a small town called Yumoto. All of it isn’t far from Nikko so we weren’t on a time crunch. On previous road trips we’ve had to jump from place to place to make sure we saw everything in one day… so this was a nice change.
The first stop was Akechidaira Ropeway, which leads to a viewpoint on top of a mountain looking down to Chuzenji Lake and Kegon Falls. It wasn’t as good of a view as we expected, so we continued down to Kegon Falls and paid to see it from the bottom.
The scenery changes with each season and we came at an odd time: the end of spring after all the snow had melted, but before the trees had blossomed… so it was a pretty bare and harsh-looking environment.
We tried to get to another viewpoint of Lake Chuzenji but the road was still closed from winter, so we weren’t able to drive up. It was, however, nice to see a light dusting of snow on the mountains, which reminded me of Vancouver.
On the north side of the lake are two waterfalls. The first is called Ryuzu or “Dragon Head Waterfall”. We couldn’t quite make out the dragon head, but a block of ice on the right side looked like a leaping horse which was pretty cool!
Looking at pictures online, I think autumn is probably the most scenic time to visit Nikko. That’s when all of the trees are a brilliant red and orange.
The second waterfall (located just before Yumoto) is called Yudaki Falls and is much more impressive. It is an enormous sheet of water flowing down a tall, sloped rock face, which is quite impressive.
Unfortunately, our end point of Yumoto was a disappointment. We were hoping to make a stop at a public footbath but upon arrival we found that it is actually closed for the winter. We thought people would flock to onsens (hot springs) in the winter but that’s not the case; they actually come during the summer.
We ended up driving back to Nikko, having conveyour belt sushi, and then driving around town to collect some stamps for Yuki’s stamp book. Overall, it was quite a fun day and it’s always nice to get out and drive around.
