Hiking Through Nikko

Sleeping in this morning, we didn't get up until 7 (no running on Wednesdays. It's a religious thing...). The showers in this hostel are unique, to say the least. As I mentioned yesterday, this is an old onsen inn (or maybe a sentou, or public bath, not sure). Well, the showers are, as is normal for a bathhouse, in the baths. Picture a single room the size of a small apartment, with a huge natural stone bath, no water in the bath and two little shower heads, overlooking the Kurogawa (The Black River). I'll get some pictures tomorrow morning before the other guests wake up, but it was pretty cool.

Scout was running around all morning, making breakfast for all the guests (ten of us this morning), half of them being vegetarian (one vegan, just to make things harder on everyone else) and getting things organized for the various activities of the day. He didn't make a single mistake with all the food (cinnamon french toast, bacon and yogurt for the omnivores, cashews in lieu of bacon for the vegetarians, and vegans don't really eat anything, so I'm surprised he came up with something) and had everyone organized and in the bus for our various destinations, including maps and train times, by 9AM. I was very impressed.

After we dropped off several people at the two different train stations in Nikko, Sumi, myself and one Australian girl, George, hopped on a bus to take us up into the national park system. Nikko has many onsens, waterfalls, plateaus and lakes that span a good 30 miles or so up and down the Yukawa river. We chose to start in the middle, at the Ryuuzu (Dragon's Head) Falls and work our way north. George started at the north end, by Lake Yuno (Yunoko).

With all the rain, the falls were very full and fast. They were also at the bottom of an incline that led up to the plateau we were going to be hiking, so we got to walk along the falls up to the trail.

A cool part of the falls where it goes underground for a moment.

At the trailhead, there was the obligatory map and warning signs

Beware of Bears. These little guys are about the size of our black bears in North America. 

The Japanese take their preparations very seriously, and many of the hikers along the trail had "bear bells" on them, to make noise as they walked so as not to startle some poor bear. Now, as much of the foot traffic we saw were chatty old women and school field trips, there was so much noise, I felt there wasn't really any need for the bells, but it made them feel better.

This trail, as it turns out, is almost entirely a boardwalk along the river and is considered a Grade III hike ("Scrambling with increased exposure. Falls are not always fatal." Oh, good). Honestly, I can't see how one would even fall except maybe slipping on wet wood or stone, and there was nowhere to fall but in the mud or the river, so unless this was some special man-eating mud, I think it was mislabeled. It is part of a large wildlife sanctuary, and you pass through a gate to get in, ostensibly to keep the animals in the sanctuary, but any bear could open the gate, so I'm not sure what good it does.

The title actually says "Bears and monkeys make their home here"

Monkeys can climb the gate, bears can open the gate. But small children could get stuck.

The hike was gorgeous. Being on a plateau, it was flat with open fields (a rarity in Japan) with birds everywhere. We saw a variety of birds we'd never see at home, including various cuckoos and kites. It was so overcast, there was no chance of seeing colors and we didn't have any binoculars so, we have no details, but hearing the cuckoo call echoing through the forest was really cool.

"Grade III" apparently doesn't want you to get your shoes wet. Nice bridges over all the river crossings.

Marshland famous for its snakes. We saw none, of course.

The path followed the river across the plateau.

The clouds were heavy and low everywhere. We were just hoping not to get caught in a downpour in the middle of a field.

Several mineral-rich streams fed the Yukawa, including this iron-rich one (hence the orange color)

This cool root system is actually used as part of the boardwalk

At the end of the trail was the very impressive Yutaki Falls (or Yudaki. They apparently can't agree on a pronounciation), meaning "hot water falls", though it's not at all hot. Sources vary the height between 70-110 meters high, depending on where you start measuring, and 25 meters wide, it feeds the Yuzawa river plateau from Lake Yuno above. While a large volume of water flows down these falls, it is quite calm at the bottom. Enough so that there was a man in waders fishing (successfully, I might add) right in the waterfall.

There was a clump of shops by the tourist parking lot nearby, selling utterly disgusting-looking whole dried fish on a stick. And by whole, I mean whole. Head, tail, eyes. Even if I ate fish, that looked wholly unappetizing. As luck would have, being in Japan, there was also a convenience store right next to the disgusting shops. After two hours of hiking, we were ready for lunch, so we happily opted for konbini food.

Karepan (curry bread), is a sweet bun filled with curry and is surprisingly tasty. Sumi insists on plain white bread every time we stop at a konbini. 

There was a set of stairs that took us up alongside Yutaki to the next trailhead at Lake Yuno.

A good 300+ steps brought us to the beautiful, if smelly, Lake Yuno

The man in the kayak gives some perspective to the size of the lake and mountains

Lake Yuno is heated by an underground volcanic flow, giving it a serious sulphur smell, but it is clean and warm, giving rise to numerous onsen inns around the lake. It was formed by the eruption of Mt. Nantai some 20,000 years ago, and is home to Onsenji, a buddhist temple founded in 788. Our plan was to check out the temple and walk around the lake (about 1 hour), but the rain had started up again, and we weren't keen on getting drenched, so we opted to head back down to Yutaki and catch the bus back to Nikko City. It turned out to be a wise choice, as heavy rain followed about 30 minutes later.

We reached Nikko Station about 90 minutes before Scout was scheduled to pick us up, so we hung around the station, people-watching. In the waiting area, there was a magical vending machine. It was for coffee or hot cocoa. You put your money in, it counted down from 30 and a little door opened with your drink in a cup with a lid firmly sealed. Magic, I tell you.

A small thing we've noticed over the years of coming to Japan is the decline in smoking and the rise in smoke-free areas. It used to be a smoke-free area was a tiny room with a fan, if you were lucky, or a few tables in the corner of a restaurant, as if the smoke would know to avoid that corner. Now most of the major JR train stations are completely smoke-free inside (there are plenty of ashtrays and such at the entrances).

It makes train stations much more comfortable.

Scout was right on time, and took us to the grocery store where most of the rest of the guests already were shopping for dinner. Tonight was an on-your-own night. Well, we hit the deli section, found the few items that weren't covered in some fish paste, flake or sauce, added some snacks and called it dinner!

Yogurt, vegetable croquettes, onigiri (turned out to have hidden fish sauce!), vegetable sushi (for Sumi), ham and corn salad, and "taco salad". A feast!

Instructions for eating the taco salad. 1) Open 2) Mix 3) Eat. In case you needed help.

Pizza Potato! We'll see.

Super Heart Chipple! No idea, but it says garlic-flavored.

Our stay in Nikko was really too short. We leave tomorrow late morning, and there is easily a week's worth of stuff to see and do here. If the weather cooperates, we'll take a look at the temples tomorrow morning. If not, we'll be back in Asakusa a bit early. We'll see what happens.