Nikko in a Day: The Shrines, the Lake, and Which Pass to Buy

Nikko is two hours north of Asakusa and contains two quite different days. Below, in the cedar forest, are the most heavily decorated shrines in Japan. Above, up a road of hairpin bends, is a lake at 1,270 metres with a waterfall at its outflow and marshland walks behind it.

Most visitors try to do both, and in the autumn colour season many of them spend the afternoon on a stationary bus. Pick one half, or stay the night.

Getting there

Tobu from Asakusa is the direct route. Limited express trains — Spacia X and the Kegon and Revaty services — run to Tobu-Nikko in about two hours. You pay the ordinary fare plus a limited express surcharge that starts around 1,450 JPY, which makes the total roughly 3,000 JPY one way. Reserve ahead in October and November, when the morning trains sell out.

JR gets you there on a Japan Rail Pass: Tohoku Shinkansen to Utsunomiya, then the JR Nikko line, in about two hours. Without a pass it is considerably more expensive than Tobu.

Local trains on the Tobu line cost less and take half an hour longer, with a change at Shimo-Imaichi. A reasonable choice if you are not in a hurry and the express is full.

Which pass, if any

The shrines

Toshogu is the mausoleum of the first Tokugawa shogun and the least restrained building in Japan: gold leaf, lacquer and some five thousand carvings, including the three monkeys and the sleeping cat that every school group is photographed beside. Admission is 1,600 JPY, or 2,400 JPY with the treasure museum. It opens at nine and closes at five from April to October and at four in winter, with entry stopping half an hour before.

Rinnoji temple and Futarasan shrine stand on the same hillside and charge separately. The vermilion Shinkyo bridge at the bottom is free to look at and 300 JPY to walk across.

Allow two to three hours for the group, and be at the gate at nine: the coaches arrive from about half past ten and the covered walkways get genuinely uncomfortable by noon.

Above the hairpins

The Irohazaka road climbs to the lake in two one-way spirals, one up and one down, with forty-eight bends between them. At the top are Lake Chuzenji, the 97-metre Kegon Falls with a paid lift to a viewing platform, and — a few stops further on — the Yudaki falls and the Senjogahara marsh, where a wooden boardwalk crosses an hour and a half of open high ground.

This is the better half of Nikko for anyone who would rather walk than queue, and it is a genuinely different climate: snow in winter, and a cool escape from Tokyo in August.

The bus takes about fifty minutes when the road is clear. On an October Sunday it can take two hours, with standing room only, in both directions.

When to go

• Late October: the lake and the upper falls at their best. Busy.
• Early November: the town and the shrines. Busier.
• December to March: cold, quiet, frozen waterfalls, and a few closures up top. The shrines are at their best in snow.
• August: the coolest easy escape from Tokyo, around five degrees below the city.

→ The best time to visit Japan, month by month

Staying the night solves the problem

One night turns the standard frustrating day into a comfortable two halves: shrines in the afternoon, dinner at an onsen, and the lake before the first bus up from the station arrives. Yumoto and Chuzenji onsen are up at the lake; Kinugawa is a valley of large hot-spring hotels on the way in.

→ Onsen for beginners: what to do, in order

Questions people actually ask

Can I see the shrines and the lake in one day?

In the quiet months, yes, if you leave Asakusa before eight and accept a rushed hour at the lake. In late October and early November, no — the road is the problem, not the distance.

Is the Nikko Pass worth it?

The All Area pass is, if you are going up to the lake and using the buses. For a shrine-area day, the World Heritage pass is roughly the same as buying the fares, with the convenience as the only gain.

Does the Japan Rail Pass cover Nikko?

It covers the JR route via Utsunomiya, not the Tobu line from Asakusa. If you hold a pass, take the Shinkansen; if you do not, take Tobu.

How much walking is involved?

The shrine area is a few kilometres of gentle slopes and a lot of steps. The Senjogahara boardwalk above the lake is flat and takes about 90 minutes end to end.

Is it worth it in the rain?

The shrines are, and the cedar forest in mist is better than in sun. The lake is not: the falls and the views disappear into cloud.

Where should I eat?

Yuba — rolled tofu skin — is the local speciality and appears in set meals all over the town. The restaurants near the station are quieter than those by the shrine gate.