Nikko - Lake Chuzenji

Monday couldn't have been better. I got up early and biked over to Michel's apartment to meet him, Yoshiko, and his mom (visiting from Canada) and go to Nikko to see the fall colors. Perhaps it was a bit early, but the weather was perfect and helped cure my "fall-in-Minnesota" homesickness. This place was gorgeous.

Here I am at lake Chuzenji - this lake is high up in the mountains - you have to take a switchback road to get up there, but it's worth the mild car-sickness you might get. The water is so clear and beautiful and if you can overlook the gaudy swan paddle boats in one section of the lake, you can really enjoy the beauty.
Here I am right after we got out of the car after driving up the mountain.
Here's a picture of Michel and Yoshiko. After hiking about and having lunch, we stopped at a foot onsen and relaxed in the BOILING HOT natural spring water (that smelled like rotton eggs, of course, because of the sulpher).
Here's another view of Chuzenji from the boat house.
Earlier in the day, we went to Kegon falls.
Here's the mountain again with the cable car coming down.
This shot shows you how clear the lake was. I would have loved to have gotten a row boat and just sat in the middle of the lake reading a book and drinking coffee.
Across from Michel and Yoshiko, Anne (Michel's mom) and I sat in the relative safety of the cooler area of the foot bath - nevertheless, as you can see, my feet still got quite red.
It was a great first day in Japan for Anne (later, we took her to meet Yoshiko's family and we all went out to dinner) and a much needed escape from concrete and metal for me.