Japan Trip: Day 3 - Day Trip to Nikko

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We took a day trip to Nikko National Park, north of Tokyo. It was about a 2 hour bus ride up there. It was raining with thunder when we got there. We went through the Rinnoji Temple and Toshogu Shrine complex, a collection of beautiful historic buildings on hilly terrain surrounded by huge cedar trees.

We had a Japanese-style lunch in a local restaurant in Nikko, which I thought was really good, consisting of noodle soup, rice, vegetables, tempura, etc.

We took the curvy road up to Lake Chuzenji, a natural lake formed by a volcanic crater. The weather cleared and it got breezy and cold. The elevation at the lake there was over 4,000 feet. We saw some monkeys. The lake is the source of Kegon waterfall, not far away, which we also checked out. There was a thermometer on the wall at one of the waterfall lookout points. It was 9 degrees C (or about 48F) in the middle of the afternoon, and this was the middle of May. I thought it felt pretty refreshing. Overall, it was a little cooler than I had expected in Japan. I attributed that to the Pacific water temperatures still being on the cool side. It was pretty comfortable, though, for the most part.

Beautiful country. Almost 70% of Japan is mountainous.

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Photos

Lake Chuzenji with Mt. Nantai
Lake Chuzenji is around 4,000 ft elevation, the mountain in the background is Mt. Nantai, elevation 2484m, just over 8,000 ft.

Looking down from the entrance gate to Toshogu
Look at the huge cedar trees, hundreds of years old.

Five Story Pagoda
The rain and thunder added to the ambience.

Kegon Waterfall
Height of the waterfall is around 100m, 320 ft.