Shogun’s Territory

Nikko is the flyer of a place, I picked it by googling “Hidden gems, Japan.” Which really, it shouldn’t have come up in that search. It was fantastic, but by no means does it qualify as a “hidden gem.” Apparently yesterday the place was swamped being a long weekend, and the foliage was just about perfect. Today it wasn’t as bad, I was told, but it was still very busy.

Today was an early start, I had to get to Nikko from Kinugawa in time to meet my hired guide, and from there we were moving constantly. We went up to Lake Chūzenji and the Kegon. The waterfalls were very impressive given the rain the previous night.

 

From there we went back into Nikko, had a lunch of udon, and then when to the World Heritage Area, a collection of shrines and temples centered around the two men, Shodo Shonin the Buddhist monk who is credited with first exploring the area, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first leader of the Tokugawa shogunate, who was considered a great leader in Japan and is buried there.

Oh, and there were a lot of pictures taken of the fall foliage. I swear, I didn’t come here for the leaves. we have leaves changing colors at home (at least yellow). But I’m glad I was here for it. Weirdly, timing kept bouncing our way like that all day.