Winter Trip to Nikko Part 3: Kegon Falls and Lake Chuzenji

[Introduction]

I traveled to Nikko (日光) for three days and two nights in the middle of February for the first time in five years. Visiting Nikko in winter would be a good choice, since there are less tourists compared to other seasons (summer and autumn) and visitors are able to enjoy snow scenery. In this article, I will write about Kegon Falls and Lake Chuzenji as part of Day 1.

[Visit Places (series of articles)]
* Day 1: Nikko Station
* Day 1: SL Taiju
* Day 1: Kegon Falls and Lake Chuzenji [This article]
* Day 1-2: Nikko Station (Light-up) and Nikko Station Hotel Classic
* Day 2: Shinkyo Bridge and Nikkosan Rinno-Ji Temple
* Day 2: Nikko Toshogu Shrine
* Day 2: Futarasan-Jinja Shrine, Taiyuin Nikkosan Rinno-Ji Temple and Tamozawa Imperial Villa Memorial Park
* Day 2-3: Nikko Kanaya Hotel
* Day 3: Kosugi Hoan Museum of Art and Matsuyashiki

[Travel Date]
2018.02.18-20

[Main Part]

Move to Lake Chuzenji with “Chuzenji Onsen Free Pass”

Following the previous post, I will return from Shimo-imaichi station to Tobu Nikko station after seeing off SL “Taiju”.

I reached Tobu Nikko station and moved to JR Nikko station.

I will take a bus bound for Chuzenji Onsen to move to the next destination, Lake Chuzenji area.

If you plan to travel from Nikko station to Lake Chuzenji area, I would recommend “Chuzenji Onsen Free Pass”.

It took about 50 minutes to move to Lake Chuzenji area.

I arrived at Chuzenji Onsen Bus Terminal.

While it was not so cold in the downtown area of Nikko, I felt very cold around here, as Lake Chuzenji area was located at high altitudes.

Since several tourist spots were located around here such as Kegon Falls and Lake Chuzenji, there were lots of souvenir shops and restaurants.

In addition, there was a museum.

Kegon Falls

I will visit Kegon Falls, which is located in the east of Chuzenji Onsen Bus Terminal.

There were two observation decks (an unpaid zone and a paid zone) at Kegon Falls and I will visit the unpaid zone first.

Since it was in winter, the waterfall was frozen.

Then, I will move to the paid area.

I went downstairs in the elevator.

I reached the observation deck.

I found more than half of visitors were foreign tourists.

While I looked down the waterfall at the unpaid area, I looked it up at the paid area.

The waterfall, which had a height of approximately 97 meters, was very spectacular.

Lake Chuzenji

After I left Kegon Falls, I will go to Lake Chuzenji.

It took about 10 minutes to walk from Kegon Falls to Lake Chuzenji and I enjoyed the scenery on the way.

I arrived at Lake Chuzenji.

Normally, sightseeing ships and swan boats were operating, but they were suspended during winter.

It is true the sight was a little bit sad as it was in winter, but I think the winter scenery was also impressive.

I took several photos of swan boats.

Pier.

It was sunny, but I felt so cold due to strong wind!

Originally, I planed to stay here longer, but I decided to return to the downtown area of Nikko because my camera battery was running out so fast.

[Closing]

That’s it for the article about Kegon Falls and Lake Chuzenji as part of Day 1 of my Nikko trip.

Summer and Autumn are the best season to visit Kegon Falls and Lake Chuzenji, but it’s also good to go there in winter. In particular, there are less tourists in winter, so if you would like to avoid the congestion and enjoy winter scenery, I would recommend you visit Nikko in winter 🙂

In the next article, I will write about light-up around Nikko station as part of Day 1 and Nikko Station Hotel Classic where I stayed.

[Map]

1 Chuzenji Onsen Bus Terminal
2 Kegon Falls
3 Lake Chuzenji

[Related Link]
Nikko Kinugawa Travel Guide

I would appreciate it if you could share my article via the following SNS buttons.