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Momiji in Japan is one of the most beautiful times along with cherry blossom.

紅葉　(もみじ Momi­ji) refers to the autum­nal leaves that can be seen in Japan from late Octo­ber to ear­ly Decem­ber (depend­ing on loca­tion). So com­ing to Japan in autumn is an absolute rec­om­men­da­tion.

Nikko is one of the first places, near Tsuku­ba, where you can see Momi­ji. This is due to the fact that Nikko is locat­ed at an alti­tude of about 600 meters, and there you can find moun­tains up to 2400 meters high. There­fore, the leaves are chang­ing col­or here ear­li­er than in the Tokyo area.

From Tsuku­ba, how­ev­er, Nikko is fur­ther away and you are 2–3 hours by train. But that’s also because I had to go via Tokyo, which is the oppo­site direc­tion. So, I went to Asakusa first. But not alone, I went with a small group who are all exchange stu­dents.

Transfer in Asakusa

It’s always nice to come back here ;). Since I’ve changed trains here before and spent my first Tokyo trip here, the area is start­ing to look famil­iar to me ^^.

This time we had to change from the Tsuku­ba Express to the Tobu Line in order to trav­el to Nikko. To take it, we bought the Nikko pass at the sta­tion for 4780 yen (about 32,50 euros). How­ev­er, this is valid for four days, which is why you should con­sid­er well whether you want to make only a day trip and whether the pass is then worth it.

More about whether the pass was real­ly worth it at the end.

We also got a tick­et for the Lim­it­ed Express (anoth­er 1470 yen or 10 euros). At the counter it was rec­om­mend­ed to us, because it was Sat­ur­day and accord­ing­ly full. The Lim­it­ed Express had reserved seats and drove only around two hours, instead of three hours with the local train. But, whether the extra mon­ey is worth it, every­one must decide for them­selves.

How­ev­er, due to the change and the trav­el times of the Lim­it­ed Express, we arrived in Nikko around 1 p.m. and that was a bit late, since the sun sets at 5 p.m. at that time.

Con­se­quent­ly, the sight­see­ing went fast ;). Nev­er­the­less, we have been able to see a lot. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, I can not give insid­er tips, because we have vis­it­ed the tourist spots in this short time, but they are all worth it!

Shinkyo-Bridge

First we went to the Shinkyo Bridge, which is actu­al­ly more impres­sive in pic­tures than in real­i­ty. On pic­tures, it always looks as if it were direct­ly locat­ed in nature. In real­i­ty, it is right next to the main road and you are only allowed to go on the bridge if you pay. It looks beau­ti­ful any­way, but you should­n’t expect too much from this spot in order not to be dis­ap­point­ed.

We were there on the 22. Octo­ber and that was even a lit­tle too ear­ly for Momi­ji. So here best to wait for Novem­ber. But when we drove up to the water­fall, about 1400 meters, there was already some col­ored leaves.

Toshogu-Shrine

After­wards we went to the near­by Toshogu Shrine. This was built in 1617 in hon­or of Toku­gawa Ieya­su. (For those inter­est­ed, there is a cool, but also quite bru­tal Net­flix series about this sto­ry: Age of Samu­rai: Bat­tle for Japan ;)).

For the shrine we had to pay anoth­er entrance fee of 1300 yen (about 9 euros). But this entrance fee is worth it in any case. The shrine is very impres­sive and espe­cial­ly for me as a his­to­ry stu­dent very inter­est­ing ;).

Includ­ed in the price was the walk to Toku­gawa’s grave, the entrance to the main hall and the prayer hall, where you can hear the call of the drag­on. For this, you have to go there your­self ;). Anoth­er high­light are the carv­ings of the three mon­keys: not hear, not see and not speak.

In total, there are a lot of details to dis­cov­er! The main gate Yomei-mon has over 500 details! So a vis­it there is very impres­sive and a must ;). But on Sat­ur­day it was also very crowd­ed, so you might con­sid­er vis­it­ing dur­ing the week if pos­si­ble.

Kegon Waterfall

After the shrine, we took the bus, the price of which is includ­ed in the Nikko Pass, to Kegon Water­fall. We got off one stop before. From there you can take a short cable car for about 1000 yen (about 7 euros) (with the Nikko Pass you get 10% dis­count) up to a peak. From there you can see the water­fall and the lake Chuzen­ji above.

I found even this view more impres­sive than the water­fall itself, where we went lat­er. At the water­fall you can no longer see the lake.

When we final­ly arrived at the Kegon water­fall, it was unfor­tu­nate­ly already dark :(. There­fore, there are no good pic­tures of it tak­en by me. Dur­ing day­time, the water­fall would have been beau­ti­ful for sure. On some days of the year it is illu­mi­nat­ed at night. Per­haps you can con­sid­er the times of this illu­mi­na­tion when plan­ning your trip.

It was now 6 pm and unfor­tu­nate­ly we already had to go back to Tsuku­ba to get the last train to Tsuku­ba in Tokyo. From the water­fall we went by bus for an hour to Nikko because of traf­fic jam. From there by local train, which is com­plete­ly includ­ed in the Nikko Pass. The local train went to Tokyo with one change after one and a half hours. And final­ly from Tokyo to Tsuku­ba for just under an hour. At about 1 o’clock I was then back.

Nikko Pass

The ques­tion is whether Nikko is worth a day trip or an overnight stay. In Nikko there is in any case more to see, for exam­ple Edo Won­der­land Nikko Edo­mu­ra. This is a park in which the hous­es and life of the Edo peri­od were recre­at­ed. Def­i­nite­ly worth see­ing and is also still on my list. An overnight stay is there­fore rec­om­mend­ed.

How­ev­er, for one day, the Nikko Pass was already worth it. Includ­ed is a ride from Tokyo to Nikko and back. On loca­tion, you can ride the bus for free and there are at least dis­counts on many attrac­tions. How­ev­er, not on the entrance to the Toshogu!

Alter­na­tive­ly, it is also worth to go by car to Nikko, but for this you must first trans­late your dri­ver’s license and then dare to dri­ve in left-hand traf­fic.

If you spend sev­er­al days in Nikko, the Nikko Pass is def­i­nite­ly worth it! And Nikko is also worth it for sev­er­al days!

Thank you for read­ing this post and see you in the next :).