Wed 7 Oct 2026 – Day Trip to Nikko (John)
The day started early again with a 7am breakfast in the
hotel in order to be at the meeting point for today’s adventure at 7.55am. It
was the same meeting point as the trip to Mount Fuji on Monday, so no stress.
We were off to Nikko and surrounds, today – about 150km
north of Tokyo in the mountains, and a 2.5 hour trip.
We were the first of our group at the location, but were soon joined by Arty, the Indian/Canadian young woman and the 2 brothers from Perth who were with us on the Mount Fuji tour.A foursome from UK and 2 couples from the USA also joined the group.Our guide today was Sofia, an Italian who had recently married a Japanese school teacher.
The weather proved to be much kinder today than on our trip
to Mount Fuji on Monday – blue skies and white clouds today and even short
sleeves were in order, including at altitude.
The first stop was at Kegon Waterfall which is some way
passed Nikko and accessed by a one way road up and a one way road down, with
more very tight hairpin bends than I have ever seen. It must have taken quite a feat of
road engineering as it was a good half hour journey each way. This waterfall was
at a height of 1300m elevation in mountains.
By the time we arrived at the falls Lily was feeling a
little queezy, but we managed to access the observation deck using the 100
metre elevator to the lowest level of the falls. Lots of school students on a
day trip followed so we made our way back to the return elevator before the
rush. these children seemed remarkably well behaved, cooperative.and somewahat different to what Lily was used to when taking her students on excursion.
Leaving the falls behind after a half hour stop we had a 10 minute unscheduled break at Lake Ghuzenji, into which the water from the falls runs. It was an unscheduled break because there was no official bus parking for the lake access, so the bus stopped on the road and we all piled out for photos. It was a beautiful lake and I wondered why there wan’t proper parking for buses.There was a large hotel perched overlooking the water which would be a wonderful place to stay. Visitors come here in the autumn particularly for the changing colours of the leaves.
Then on to Nikko for a 1 hour lunch stop. Nikko is a very pleasant small town with connections to the Samurai from the 17th century.Lily was still not feeling the best so sat in the shade while I purchased a sandwich and drinks from the Family Mart on the main street.
One of the main reasons that tourists travel to Nikko is to visit the Toshogu Shrine which dates from 1603, and which is the resting place of the shogun of the time, and a number of others.There were many buildings apart from the actual shrine building itself, all beautifully ordained with ornate carvings, paintings and gold ornamentals, and was very impressive. The actual resting place of the shogun is in a small pagoda on the top of the mountain, up another 300 steps, but we had no time to go there (luckily).
Sofia imparted much information about the buildings and
ornamentation, and the religious significance of the area o the samurai – Shoes
had to be removed before entry to the main shrine building on this occasion.
Following the shrine visit it was time to retrace our
journey and get back to Tokyo before the rush hour made it into a 4 hour
journey. We made it in 2 hours 40 minutes.
Lily was still not feeling the best so we retreated to our
hotel, and I went to 7 Eleven for some dinner supplies – miso soup with
mushrooms (rehydrated in room), small tray of sushi, and a small chocolate cake
– all surprisingly good. Oh yes, and a can of Belgian style beer for which we
had daily free vouchers.
We have a day to ourselves tomorrow (Thursday) so think we ‘ll try to get to the
Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, which is next to the Imperial Palace, so
not far away. There’s also a model railway shop not far from the hotel in the
Ginza which we may visit.
Hoping the good weather continues.
