The Grass Here is Greener: Nikko

On Friday we headed out into the rain for a long train voyage. Our destination was a place called Nikko, which I literally knew nothing about because Christian did all the planning for it and I had been too sick to really care. Well, good job Christian.


The local station near our hotel in Kyoto was a 10 minute walk and the rain was steady, but not torrential. From that station (Nijo) we headed to Kyoto Sta. and caught a Shinkansen to Tokyo, where we got off and looked for food--but we only had a limited time before our connection, so we ended up buying little boxed sandwiches and pastries from a bakery and we ate those on our next train which took us from Tokyo to Utsunomiya, where we transferred over to the local Nikko line that took us further into the mountains to Nikko Station, where we were picked up in a van by Scout, the proprietor of the hostel we were destined for. A run-on sentence for a run-on day.

This hostel is remarkable. It is right on a river, which is currently swollen and raging from the recent rains.

View outside the hostel

The hostel is way outside of town...town being a loose term because Nikko city is gigantic (geographically, not in population) and mostly consists of a national park and UNESCO heritage site. Thus, because we are way out of any sort of city center, Scout provides rides in the van at intervals in the morning and evening. Our first night here was spent on the patio area talking about how huge the bugs were and generally getting to know some other travelers (most of whom were destined to leave in the morning).

But in the morning, after a breakfast provided by Scout (a recurring theme youl'l see here, Scout does everything, to the point of absurdity), we had our itineraries loosely arranged--today we were doing a hike, and Scout showed us basically where to go and provided us with some laminated maps. It was drizzling rain, and as it turned out that weather would hold for the majority of the day, but we won't complain.

So, down into town and onto the bus which would wind us upward into the moutnains. Our first stop: Kegon Falls, where Lake Chuzenji empties itself over a cliff nearly 100 meters tall.

After that we walked along the lake up to the Chuzenji Temple area, here's a pic over the rooftops of one temple building with the lake and mountains beyond.

After that we hopped on the next bus to go further up to Ryuzu Falls. Here we had a little lunch at a restaurant at the falls before our hike.

Ryuzu Falls...I think

From here we began the hike, which was about 2 hours along fairly flat terrain. A majority of the path was a boardwalk, though some areas were just mud. The path hugged the river for a long way, but eventually broke off and took us to wide empty wetlands full of grass and fantastic views to the mountains and clouds around us.

Ultimately this path lead us to Yudaki falls, my favorite of all the waterfalls we saw. Rather than a long drop, it consists of a steep slope of rock that the water cascades down--somewhat violently. Mesmerizing to watch.

Christian being mesmerized. Or...stabbed?

Up above this water fall is Yunoko Lake, but we had to climb a lot of stairs to get up there. This was the only really arduous part of the hike. 

Oh, did I mention that this whole time we had been hanging out with two gentleman from England? Yeah, this is kind of a weird place to interject this, very poor narrative form, but a man and his son who arrived at the hostel the same night we did accompanied us on this whole excursion. Basically I was the only person who really paid attention to Scouts mission briefing in the morning so everyone just followed me for the morning. The father is named Glen, and I don't remeber the son's name because I'm an idiot. Anyway...remember I mentioned meeting a Kiwi gentleman in the Yogyajarta airport? Well, by the sound of it, Glen recognized that guy and apparently knew him. Small world?

Interjection over. 

At the top of the steps we found a lake. Nothing crazy. But up here there are some volcanic vents or something, there's a lot of sulfur in the air, and sulfuric hot springs which power some natural baths, also called an "onsen." But we elected not to go to one of those baths, and instead we caught a bus back to Nikko. Here's a picture that helps illustrate the road we were on. A billion switchbacks climbing straight down the mountain in a tour bus.

and went to the grocery store to buy some food for a barbecue. I got sausages because they are very hard to screw up on the grill.

And that's Nikko so far.