Japan Photo Guide

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Nikko (日光市), located in Tochigi Prefecture, is a relatively small city population wise, but after recently merging with a few other cities in March of 2006 it covers a vast area. Nikko is very famous for it’s beautiful nature– including waterfalls, lakes and especially fall leaves–and it’s temples and shrines. For the main part, these two famous features of Nikko, nature and temples, are divided into two different areas, so you need at least two days to see Nikko; however I recommend 3 days and 2 nights, staying one night close to Lake Chuzenji and one day in the actually city. The nature area, Nikko National Park, is about an hour drive away from the temple area and the drive is up a curvy mountain road. For more information about Central Nikko please see my other post about Nikko National Park. For more information about Nikko National Park, keep reading here.

If you are going to see the fall leaves know that the two areas of Nikko change colors at different times. The Nikko National park at a much higher elevation and tends to change color about 2 weeks before the central area. I was there just a little late for Nikko National Park area just a little early for Central Nikko

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Nikko (日光市), located in Tochigi Prefecture, is a relatively small city population wise, but after recently merging with a few other cities in March of 2006 it covers a vast area. Nikko is very famous for it’s beautiful nature– including waterfalls, lakes and especially fall leaves–and it’s temples and shrines. For the main part, these two famous features of Nikko, nature and temples, are divided into two different areas, so you need at least two days to see Nikko; however I recommend 3 days and 2 nights, staying one night close to Lake Chuzenji and one day in the actually city. The nature area, Nikko National Park, is about an hour drive away from the temple area and the drive is up a curvy mountain road. For more information about Nikko National park, including Lake Chuzenji, please see my post about Nikko National Park. For more information about the city of Nikko (often called Central Nikko), keep reading here.

If you are going to see the fall leaves know that the two areas of Nikko change colors at different times. The Nikko National park at a much higher elevation and tends to change color about 2 weeks before the central area. I was there just a little late for Nikko National Park area just a little early for Central Nikko.

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Naruko is most famous for it’s onsens (hot spring baths) but almost as famous for it’s fall leaves or koyo in Japanese. Naruko is one of the most famous places to see the fall leaves in the Tohoku area is the most famous in Miyagi Prefecture. I went there October 21st, 2006 and it was just a little bit too early. If you live in the Tohoku or Miyagi area, by next weekend (28th) it should be really nice! By local train, Naruko is about 2 hours from Sendai and 40 minutes to Naruko from Furukawa (depending on where you are coming from, you should change at Furukawa or Kogata to get to Naruko). The station you want to get off at is called Naruko Onsen.

From the station you can walk to some places of interest but also there are a few buses and taxis if you don’t want to walk the whole time. One of the more popular places to go is Naruko Gorge. It is about a 30 minute walk from Naruko Onsen Station and it takes about 1 hour to walk through the gorge. At the end their is a really famous bridge, that you can see in the photos here, and a really nice view of the gorge. I recommend taking the bus to the end of the gorge where the bridge is and then walking back towards the station through Naruko Gorge. The gorge, while being slightly commercialized, is actually quite a nice and easy walk with a few waterfalls, bridges and interesting rocks and cliffs. As you can imagine, being as it is a gorge, sometime the lighting can be somewhat tricky with places completely in shadow and completely in direct sunlight.

Other places of interest include, Naruko Tropical Botanical Gardens, Katanuma Lake (although it is a lot smaller than I thought it would be), Naruko Damn and a nature trail at Jigokudani (which passes by a famous geyser). Read the rest of this entry »

Okamako, Okama Lake, is a 320m lake in a crater, created from a volcanic eruption in the 1720s. Okamako is on Mt. Zao in Yamagata prefecture and about and hour or two from Sendai. It is also known as the “Five Color Swamp” (五色沼, goshiki numa) because depending on the season and the weather the lake changes color.

To be honest, it should also be known as “usually too cloudy to see but still beautiful lake,” because most of the time it is really cloudy and you can only catch glimpses of the ever changing lake. I was there for about 4 hours and could actually “see” the shy lake for a total of about 3 minutes maybe and these are by “see”  I kind of mean catch a glimpse.  I am not sure if there is really anyway to find out what the weather is like before going, because I went twice on sunny days but Okamako is so high up on Mount Zao that on a sunny day it was cloudy there (see the very bottom photo). On the other hand, the other photos, taken by Laura Kumataka, were taken on a cloudy and a little rainy day, but again, Okamako is so high up she got above the clouds.  Maybe the secret is going on a rainy day and just hope you can get above the clouds. Read the rest of this entry »

Lake Toya (Toyako in Japanese), is part of Shikotsu-Toya National Park and is about an hour and half from Sapporo by train. Lake Toya is really famous for hot springs and also is home to Japan’s most recently active volcano, Mount Usu, which last erupted in 2000. On a nice day, Lake Toya offers a spectacular view of the lake and the islands in the middle of it, but like most of the rest of my trip to Hokkaido, the weather was once again cloudy. The lake is pretty large so I recommend renting a car or bike as public transportation is not so frequent. For the best views of the lake and surrounding area check out Mt. Usu Ropeway.

There are a few nice things about Lake Toya that I really liked. For one, there are all these (sometimes) interesting sculptures all around the lake (as you can see above). Second, every night in the summer there is a small festival at night where there are fireworks over the lake and also a small traditional dance and taiko drums. Also if you are into outdoor activities there is plenty of hiking, fishing, camping, boating and other water activities available.

For more information please see Japan-Guide.com.

Onuma Koen is a Quasi National Park and as a result feels a little touristy, even for a place in Japan; however, that being said, it still may be worth your time to check it out. When I went there the weather was very cloudy which was very disappointing because one of the best parts about Onuma Koen the spectacular view of Mount Komagatake. To be honest, if the weather is not so good, you could make the same photographs at almost any lake/nature area. Onuma Koen is about a 2 hour train ride from Sapporo and only about 20 minutes from Hakodate.

If the weather is nice I can see this place being really beautiful and also it is a place where a car or at least renting a bike would be really convenient since the lake is really too big to walk around. Also, if you are so interested, water activities such as fishing, paddle boats, and taking a boat tour are available. For more information, check out the official site of Onuma Koen or the Japan-Guide.com.