Homestay

My first small japanese class came with a homestay program, which turned out to be a wonderful experience. I had some doubts about this as first, as I am very shy.

The host family were very fun and they have a cute little cocker spaniel. I spent my afternoons learning about food, mostly, as the host mother loves to cook. My homework will be to have to try all of these recipes out for myself! We even went to an orchard to pick japanese pears. The pears look like brown apples, are the size of a small grapefruit and have very firm and sweet flesh. Very very tasty.

When not eating we spent a lot of time in Tokyo, going window shopping in all the chic areas. But also went to a very nice aquarium near their house in Chiba.

I was also very happy with the japanese classes (I will be continuing in the Yokohama branch of the same school). So all in all it was a wonderful experience that ended all too soon.

Nikko National Park

The second part of our Nikko trip took us up into the monutains behind Nikko. It is just over an hour and a half to the last lake accessible by bus, but the view is so wonderful the time passes quite quickly. I even saw a monkey near the road on our first trip up the mountain.

In the first part of the bus route is the Irohazaka slope, an area so steap they had to split the road into 2 one-way roads. The 5 km of switchbacks give passengers on both side of the bus to see the great view of the valley bellow, but they're much more fun going up than comming down.

Our hiking trip started with Yunoko lake, which tends to bubble a bit to itself and smell of sulfur. The hot water must give just this little extra to the lake, as there are some big carp in it, and even some ingenious fishermen.

The hiking paths are extremely well kept, with wooden walkways most of the way. This makes the walk very restful, only bothered now and then by the bells a lot of Japanese hang on their bags. By the sound of a Japanese walking group you'd think you'd just entered grizzly territory...

The path took us from Yunoko lake to Yutaki falls, then on through oak forests with bamboo undergrowth, which oppened up into a high plateau plain with marshes on the edge. The marsh is drained by a nice little river which then goes off down the mountain in a long series of falls before reaching Chuzenji lake.

It was right along this lake that we saw our second monkey, and this one right up and personal. It was foraging for acorns along the path and wasn't really afraid of us at all (we weren't moving). It ate all the acorns on the uphill side of the path, sat in the middle of the path and looked up at the tree a bit, and then wandered off, obviously deciding it wasn't worth waiting for them to fall. As all this happened just 4m away, we were entranced.

Chuzenji lake is a lake so large and flat that you just feel like taking a boat out to fish. This is, in fact, what a lot of people think too, and it used to be quite a famous resort, untill the resort house burnt down. It says on the info pannel that "all that was left of the house was the mantlepiece". And, indeed, the chimney is still standing, all alone in the middle of it's own little garden. Very cute.

Now this lake cannot possibly be more peaceful. Yet at the end of this lake are Kegon falls, which is the most impressive waterfall I've ever seen! It's not that wide, and the river leading to it is quite small, as rivers go, but the water just gets to the end of the forest, and plunges, 97m straight down, before continuing it's rather peaceful course down the mountain. The impressive view of this waterfall is added to, I find, by the numerous little waterfalls comming straight out of the rock, about half way down the main fall.

We actually went to Kegon falls on the morning of the 3rd day, due to the arrival of the afternoon thunderstorm. This meant we had the whole waterfall just to us. It was absolutely amazing.