Nikkō
Nikkō (日光) is one of the most popular destinations among foreign tourists for a 1-2 day trip from Tokyo.
You might think that this is because it has such a fantastic name. Japan Guidegives some other reasons, though:
Nikko (日光, Nikkō) is a town at the entrance to Nikko National Park, most famous for Toshogu, Japan's most lavishly decorated shrine and the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate.
Nikko had been a center of Shinto and Buddhist mountain worship for many centuries before Toshogu was built in the 1600s, and Nikko National Park continues to offer scenic, mountainous landscapes, lakes, waterfalls, hot springs, wild monkeys and hiking trails.
Nikko and the Okunikko area around Lake Chuzenji, in particular, are well known for their beautiful autumn colors (koyo). In the average year the colors start descending from the higher elevations of Yumoto Onsen in early October, are best around Lake Chuzenji and the Irohazaka road in mid to late October and reach the town of Nikko in the first half of November.
Feel free to check out their site if you want to get the details on what people see and do there. Or just read about my own personal experience at Nikkō, which I found to be quite magnificent...
It was January of 2010, and I was a young, naive, broke student of a Japanese language school in Tokyo.
I went for a 1-night stay in Nikkō with my classmate and — unbeknownst to me at the time — lifelong friend Harry.
Our first day, we did all the touristy stuff. Shrines, architecture, etc.
We explored the city on foot with a German guy named Simon, whom we'd met on the train.
I remember one thing in particular about that first day: It was freezing.
So cold, in fact, that the lens of my camera fogged up for about 30 minutes.
Oh, and we got lost.
That night, we stayed at a hostel, which was nice enough.
Someone at the hostel kindly drove us to the 温泉 (おんせん // hot spring) just up the road.
"Sightseeing → onsen → beer" is a nice flow for most days traveling in Japan, as you can see in the serenity of young Niko's face:
The second day was even better.
After much debating (because we were broke), we decided to splurge on a "waterfall tour" that our hostel was offering.
I say "splurge," but it was like $30 a person.
This turned out to be a fantastic decision.
The hostel, we found out, was owned by a Buddhist monk. He was also our guide for the waterfall tour. Since no one else had signed up for the tour, Harry and I piled into his tiny car and set off:
The waterfalls were pretty cool. Kegon Falls — the most famous and least exciting — was frozen:
There were a few people at Kegon Falls, but everywhere else we went was completely deserted. I loved it...
I also wasn't that cold because I was wise enough to wear every single piece of clothing I had.
There was something about the silence of each place we went — little sound other than the crunching snow under our shoes, perhaps a bit of running water — along with the Buddhist monk's continually calm demeanor, that made me feel at peace.
He took us to a place where we could drink sulfurous hot spring water from the ground, which he said was believed to have healing properties.
We had to dip our hands into the snow for a while to make them cold enough to cup the water.
I was quite certain that I was going to fall in.
To end our day together, we went to all-you-can-eat Indian food, a restaurant that was attached to another 温泉 (おんせん). We went to the onsen, too, which would have been better if I hadn't overeaten at Indian food buffet!
Over lunch, we tried to speak with the Buddhist monk in Japanese. It didn't work so well because Harry and I were both pretty terrible at Japanese then. We reverted to English.
The monk mentioned that he'd been living in the U.S., but he came back to his hometown, Nikkō, to take care of his sick and aging parents.
"I'm sorry," I said.
"Well," he said, his voice calm and quiet, "sometimes life... it changes."
It's a phrase I've thought back on from time to time, particularly when dealing with something difficult or unpleasant.
Needless to say, I'll never forget my trip to Nikkō.
Useful Japanese
日光は紅葉の名所です。
にっこう は こうよう の めいしょ です。
Nikkō is a famous spot for viewing autumn leaves.
Literally: “Nikkō + は + leaves changing color / autumn leaves + の + famous place + です.”
なんか神秘的な雰囲気ですね。
なんか しんぴてきな ふんいき です ね。
It [This place] has sort of a mystical aura to it, doesn’t it?
Literally: “somehow + mysterious / mystical + mood / aura / ambiance + です + ね.”
Note: You might say this when in a particularly mystical-feeling place, perhaps as you walk the grounds of a quiet, snow-covered temple.
無計画で行ったけど、とても楽しかったです。
むけいかく で いった けど、 とても たのしかった です。
We went without any plan, but it was still a lot of fun.
Literally: “lacking a plan + で + went + but, + very + was fun + です.”
0 comments