The Japanese language has a word to describe the splendour of Autumn Colours, Koyo(紅葉). The difficulty in describing the word Koyo is as difficult is describing autumn dyed landscape, a palette of red, maroon, yellow, purple, green, blue and shades of pink. The landscape lights up for a brief period, a colourful interlude to the bare winter.
I have visited Nikko in winter, the beauty of the snow fields, an endless stretch of white is beautiful, but the experience of driving through roads lined by the autumn leaves on clear autumn days with mountains rising in distance fills one with contentment.
There is a joy in visiting Nikko in Autumn, the clear crisp days, the sunshine reflecting on the leaves and the bright landscape and the inner peace in watching and soaking in the beauty.
We started our trip with the Chuzenji 中禅寺 shrine. Even though we arrived at an early hour, there were people in the temple. The grounds of the shrine was lined with trees providing instagram level pictures of the shrine behind autumn leaves.
Climbing the steps of the shrine provided a view of the Chuzenji lake 中禅寺湖.
The lady at the ticket counter of the temple helpfully suggested driving further up along the lake for a better viewing spot.The red and yellow streaked trees reflected in the blue lake waters and leaves strewn roads shone bright in shades of yellow and rust
The Senjogahara 戦場ヶ原 Marshlands was the next stop with its rust shaded grass and trees with leaves in red, maroon and yellow, the small country roads leading to the blue mountains in the background.
We went back into Nikko city for lunch, Gyoza no Umechan 餃子の梅ちゃん is small restaurant with seating capacity of around 15. The restaurant offers a vegetarian and a vegan menu.
The restaurant was full by the time we arrived and we had to wait close to 20 minutes before the affable owner was able to clear a table apologising all the while for making us wait out in the cold.
The hot steaming Ramen and Gyozas with the spicy sauce was worth the wait on the cold afternoon with the sky turning grey and sending in occasional showers.
‘Please do come back whenever you can’, he told us on our way out.
The last day was spent exploring the Kinugawa Onsen 鬼怒川温泉 area, the place we stayed in. The Kinugawa 鬼怒川river skirts through a wooded landscape, the autumn hued trees lining up on both sides of the bank.
There are boats which offer tourists an hour long downstream ride with the straw hatted boatsmen explaining the route known as Line Kudariライン下.
An hour long boat ride and then another 15 minute bus ride back to the starting point.
The other attraction around the Kinugawa Onsen area is a steam engine pulled train that chugs through the Nikko countryside passing through towns and villages in the 50 minute ride. The train has an observation deck where riders can take pictures behind grills and watch the autumn dyed countryside.
We caught the Saturday evening traffic on the drive back to Tokyo but nothing could diminish, not even the extra 30 minutes spent in bumper to bumper traffic, the joy that Autumn coloured Nikko is!
