From Tokyo: Nikko Shrines, Lake Chuzenji & Kegon Falls Tour

Three unhurried hours at Nikko's Toshogu Shrine, then up 48 mountain switchbacks to Japan's highest natural lake and a 99 m waterfall. Central Tokyo meeting points.
Most Nikko day trips run the same sequence: shrine, waterfall, lake, back on the bus. This one gives three hours to the shrine rather than ninety minutes, and counts the drive as part of the day.

Nikko sits about two hours north of Tokyo, but altitude is what changes things. By the lake you stand 1,269 m above sea level, and the climb passes through distinct forest stages: maples still green low down, scarlet halfway, bare and frosted near the top late in the season. That spread is why the colour here outlasts Tokyo's.

TOSHOGU SHRINE â around 3 hours

Begun in 1617 for Tokugawa Ieyasu, the shogun who unified Japan, and rebuilt far more grandly by his grandson in 1636. Around 55 structures stand on the hillside, eight of them National Treasures. Most tours walk you to the gate, point at Yomeimon and leave. Three hours is enough to actually look.

Yomeimon, the "Gate of Sunset", carries more than 500 carved figures. Three are worth hunting for:

The Three Monkeys on the sacred stable: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Easy to miss, endlessly photographed.

The Sleeping Cat, a small panel above a doorway attributed to the Edo carver Hidari Jingoro. It is on the back of the gate, so most visitors never turn around.

The Imaginary Elephant, under the eaves of the upper storehouse. The Edo craftsman had never seen an elephant, since Japan had none, and carved one from imagination, so the ears, legs and tail are slightly wrong.

Admission to the inner precinct is not included (about Â¥1,600 adults, Â¥550 schoolchildren) and lunch is on your own â three hours means time to sit down and eat properly.

IROHAZAKA â scenic drive, no stop

Two roads climb 15.8 km to the lake, sharing 48 curves between them. One of Japan's hundred selected roads, and in autumn the reason to book: every switchback opens onto a different band of colour. Driving rather than walking is what lets you cover the whole gradient.

LAKE CHUZENJI â around 30 minutes

At 1,269 m this is Japan's highest natural lake, formed when Mount Nantai dammed the valley, and the water lies flat enough to mirror the mountain. Photographers have come for these reflections for a century; the east shore gives the clearest composition.

KEGON FALLS â around 50 minutes

The lake drains east across Mount Nantai and drops 99 m in one fall, with a dozen thinner streams threading the rock above it. In autumn the gorge turns red and the fall reads as a white line against it. The elevator to the lower platform is not included; the upper platform is free.

We leave around 16:30, back in Tokyo by 18:30, dropping at Tokyo Station and Shinjuku.

Garantir la disponibilité du livre dans les plus brefs délais. Les réservations anticipées valent la peine d'être prises en considération, surtout si vous planifiez le voyage en haute saison, comme les jours fériés ou les fins de semaine.

Cette excursion peut être annulée sans frais jusqu'à : heures d'annulation avant le début du voyage. Si vous l'annulez après les heures d'annulation ou si vous ne vous présentez pas à l'excursion, le prix total de l'activité vous sera toujours facturé. Tout retard à la prise en charge ou au départ sera considéré comme un retard.