Kegon Falls

Wednesday 30th January

Woke up this morning to discover bright blue sky and loads of snow! Nikko is a world heritage city so spent a lovely morning wandering around the sites from the red laquered sacred Shin-ko bridge (allegedly built to represent a buddhist in the 8th century who was helped across the river by two snakes who formed a bridge then vanished, likely story..) to the Tosho-gu shrine and Rinno-ji temple.

Wandering along the lake to the Gaman-ga fuchi abyss where 50 buddhas were all lined up covered in snow was a pretty amazing sight (photos to follow I promise, but not of the Onsen as Robin requested you will be pleased to hear!)

I then took a bus about 40 minutes out of Nikko to Lake Chuzenji and the Kegon Falls. I got very twitchy as the route consisted of loads of hairpin bends (mum you would have hated it) and what with all the snow I was worried we would skid.

Sat 1300m above sea level it was absolutely freezing, although the views of the lake and the waterfall were well worth it. Plus I made friends with a nice French lady so had lunch and walked around together which made a change.

With feet like iceblocks from wandering around in all the snow I made my way towards Karuizawa where I was intending to visit the Asama-Yama volcano. I should have questioned myself when a Japanese lady on the train befriended me and said that there wasn`t much to do North of Tokyo in the winter except ski, but I pressed on nevertheless.

Well she was right. Karuizawa although beautiful was isolated (there were very few skiers their either, despite the fact that the train drops you off at the foot of the slopes). Plus the route to the volcano was shut in winter for the first time as a trial due to lack of demand (great!).

With little else to do beside admire their Christmas decorations (yes they keep them up until Spring apparently) I headed to bed deciding to leave as soon as possible in the morning. I bet the locals were thinking stupid Gaijin (foreigner)...