Day 157: Lakes and Waterfalls

I started the day taking the bus from Nikko to Yutaki Falls, over an hour away. The sign by the waterfall explained, in typical bizarre Japanese fashion, how the waterfall was admired for its feminine attributes. I'm not entirely sure what attributes it was talking about, loud and violent?

I hiked up the path to the top of the falls and did a circuit around Lake Yunoko. It's a small lake with an onsen on the far bank. There were quite a few people out fishing on the lake, which was a regular theme throughout the day. The trails in general were all pretty easy and maintained wonderfully, and the scenery was lovely.

Not sure what the fish are, maybe Mike can tell from the pictures. The story of fishing in the area is a bit interesting. Around 100 years ago a Scottish man built a cottage in the area because the landscape reminded him of his native Scotland. He introduced trout into the lakes, which did very well, and later his cottage was converted to an angling and country club that attracted foreign dignitaries and celebrities and really transformed the area into a recreational area.

After completing the walk around the lake I returned to the Yutaki falls and followed the river downstream to another waterfall. The area around here changed back and forth between forest and marshland.

After a bit more hiking I got to the Senjo-ga-hara Plateau and the woods opened up into expansive grasslands.

After the grass I hit forest again, and followed it until I hit yet another waterfall - Ryuzu Falls. Ryuzu is a very long, drawn out waterfall that follows a channel of volcanic rock down into Lake Chuzenji.

A walked for a couple more hours along the bank of Lake Chuzenji, but the scenery wasn't as nice and there weren't any other hikers. Mostly the trail just followed along between the road and lake, but for the most part the lake was obscured by trees so the view was rarely all that interesting.

By the time I got to the town on the shore of the lake it was getting pretty overcast, so I decided to take the bus back to Nikko. Before the bus I stopped for some dinner of local rainbow trout ramen from a small shop. The evening back in Nikko has been relaxing, as all the days have been. The hostel is almost deserted (only me and one other tonight) and there's tons of room - a nice change from Tokyo. Tomorrow I'm heading back to Tokyo for the last few days I'm in Japan - although I plan to do at least one day trip out to another city before I leave.