Air Force Adventures: Colorful/Cultural Nikko

As Fall comes to Japan, many citizens take to the hills to see the 'Changing of the Colors'. Since there is mainly city here and a few trees, it is a nice break to road trip a few hours up to the mountains. Our neighbor is from Hawaii and he told us that Nikko is an amazing place to go view the colors. I had wanted to go to Nikko because there are a few temples and shrines, it’s known as a mini Kyoto in that aspect, so this time of year seemed like a perfect time to go.

Chris photo-bombing a pic of the new toaster… Car.

After work one day, Chris and I started off on our journey. We got a new car (new to us) a few months ago. It has 3 doors and reminds me of a toaster. Juan told us we officially have a van, Japanese style… we are in denial.

Nikko is about 3 hours North of Fussa, which took us 4 hours with my awesome navigational skills. We finally found our lodging, which was a house turned into a hotel. I found it charming. Everything was just my size. Chris on the other hand, had to bend down to get through doors and his feet hung off the bed.

The next morning, we walked a few miles into town and saw the Shinkyo Bridge that connects main Nikko to the town’s shrines and temples. From the bridge, we trekked up this immense slope which brought us to Rinnoji Temple. It was under construction, but we could still walk through and see the renovations taking place as well as the restoration of some beautiful and iconic statues, ect. Unfortunately, no pictures. You will have to go and see it for yourselves… Construction set to end in 2021, so you have time to save your money :)

We then continued up to Toshogu Shrine. It was beautiful and educational. Did you know that the ‘See no evil, Speak no evil, Hear no evil’ monkeys originated here? That image that we know so well is actually part of a story.

Also at Toshogu, there is a carving of a ‘Sleeping Cat’, which is well known. There are also thousands of stairs that we climbed up to view the Ieyasu Mausoleum.

After descending, we walked over to Futarasan Shrine. It was nice and flat compared to its neighbors which was ironic because it is a shrine to Nikko’s sacred mountains.

Right next to Futarasan Shrine was Taiyuinbyo; which is the mausoleum of Iemitsu who was the grandson of Ieyasu (who’s mausoleum was up the hill from the Tosogu shrine). The Taiyuinbyo was spectacular but built slightly more modest from his grandfather’s mausoleum out of respect. One thing that I found interesting about Taiyiunbyo is that it had both Buddhist and Shinto influences. It is usually one or the other, and most Buddhist elements get removed from Shinto shrines and visa-versa, but in the Meiji Period, it was common for shrines/temples to contain both religious elements, and there is not complete separation here.

After we had seen the shrines and temples, we headed back to the hotel to grab the car and drive up the mountain to see the colors. There is only one way up and one way down the mountain and they are different roads. So if you were not intending on going up the mountain and just took a wrong turn, there goes an hour of your day going up and back down the mountain! The road is called Irohazaka. Something interesting about how it got its name, ‘Iroha’ are the first three (or 48) syllables of the old Japanese alphabet meaning ‘a-e-i-o-u’. The road has 48 turns… and ‘zaka’ means ‘slope’. So Irohazaka = A-e-i-o-u Slope.

Anyway, the first day we were there was very foggy and we could not see much of the colors…or a waterfall.

The second day we were in Nikko, the sun was shining and the air was crisp and clear! We drove back up Irohazaka and stopped at the Akechidaira Plateau; which is almost at the top of the mountain but contains a cable car ropeway that leads to an observation deck. Chris and I rode up the ropeway and got a spectacular view of Lake Chuzenjiko and Mt. Nantai (which is a volcano). We headed up a little path away from the upper observation deck. From there, we got a truly awesome view of the lake and the Kegon waterfall.

From there, we rode back down the ropeway and headed to see the Kegon waterfall up close. Kegon Waterfall (Kegon no Taki) is rated in the top three most beautiful waterfalls in Japan and is almost 100 meters tall. Wow.

We drove from the Kegon Waterfall around Lake Chuzenjiko to Ryuzu Waterfall (Ryuzu no Taki); which means ‘dragon head waterfall’. It was absolutely spectacular especially with the fall colors. Afterwards, we headed back towards the main part of this mountain town. Along the way, we stopped for some food at a café and walked around Lake Chuzenjiko collecting some seashells and volcanic rock.