Our weekend ended up being touristy again. I think Tetsu feels he has an obligation to keep my camera busy.
A couple of weeks ago (when he was running out of ideas) Tetsu asked me what I wanted to see... Well, we've lived in Nikko nearly 25 years and visited Lake Chuzenji countless times, but I've never ridden on the sightseeing ferry. That might be nice... but it is closed during the winter and as Lake Chuzenji is at the top of a mountain, even now the season is cold... Probably nothing much to see in the way of flowers or greenery.
Even so, we headed up the mountain on Saturday morning arriving at the lake at 10:00. Although the lake resort area was probably doing a booming business during Golden Week, the tourists were pretty sparse this weekend. There ended up being a whole 10 of us on the ferry...
The pedal boats and fishing boats weren't being rented out yet either...
Here comes our ferry! It makes an hour spin around the lake with a recording pointing out the sites. No English though. (But interestingly enough there was a young foreign girl on deck hauling in ropes and telling passengers to watch their step. Maybe when necessary she can translate?)
Actually Tetsu looked like he could have been part of the crew this day.
It was so cold and windy that all 10 passengers stayed inside the ferry with no one stepping out on the deck. Tetsu says our pictures look like we are inside a big bus. Nope. This was the ferry.
No green on the hillsides yet.
And the far off mountain range still has a lot of snow.
Well, that was a nice spin around. Not too exciting but leisurely and relaxing. Tetsu marked that off his list of places to take Tanya.
When we got back to the dock, there was a sign on the ticket window saying:
"We apologize for the inconvenience but because of strong winds,
the ferry tour has been canceled until further notice."
I guess we had just made the last ride of the day! Whew! Glad we got on after making the drive up to the lake specially for the ferry ride.
Canceled.
Your lucky day, hope Tetsu enjoyed the trip too. And still snow on the mountains, while Cherry Blossom Day has gone. Cheers, Jean.
ReplyDeleteI commend you both for getting to see so much of your local area. When we moved to Somerset we talked about how we were going to use it as a base for exploration, but after five years we still haven't done very much, though we're still talking about it!
ReplyDeleteI have been to Chuzenji countless times but never taken the ferry ride. I can't imagine that taking up a whole hour. The falls up at the far end and the hiking is great.
ReplyDeleteTiming is everything! Glad you got the ferry ride and photos :)
ReplyDeleteTanya, Captivated by pictures you took of your hike near this area, we put Chuzenji on our list of places to see when we visited our daughter last October. Even though we don’t understand Japanese, we enjoyed the ferry ride and autumn color around the lake. Well worth visiting! Judy
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