We woke this morning to a great view of the Shinjuku CBD skyline from our hotel room.

As our tour with G Adventures has now officially ended, we caught up with our guide Noriko one final time to thank her for making the trip such a memorable and special time and to give her a tip for her time and assistance. Also she was the one who managed to arrange for the return of our lost jackets left at Fukuoka airport to our hotel in Shinjuku!!

We will miss her great organisation skills and her kind generosity. Her final act of helpfulness came in guiding us to a quick and direct service to Nikko.

After a 90 mile train journey we arrived back in the countryside of Nikko and immediately were struck by his natural beauty and its traditional charm and appearance.

Before heading to the lake, we decided to stop for lunch at one of the traditional Japanese locally run restaurants and enjoyed some curried soup and pork katsu alongside a chilled bottle of Kirin lager.

Andy’s curried soup was delicious but very hot, so after a 5min lull to let it cool down he soon got to work and quickly consumed the tasty chicken & veg broth soup.

Michelle went for pork katsu with noodles and vegetables and it proved to be big hit too.

So two large main courses with beers ended up costing only £15, which in this tourist mountain town seemed like a pretty decent outcome and great to experience it with the locals.

The bus up to Lake Chuzenji brought us to the picturesque lake formed by volcanic activity.

The surrounding autumn foliage was particularly stunning with an ever increasing number of redding trees and bushes.

Up from the lake was Kegon Falls, one of Japan’s top three waterfalls, sitting an impressive 97m tall.

We were able to get a great position from an observation platform sitting immediately opposite the falls.

We took the opportunity to walk along the quaint waterfront with its iconic Nikko sign looking out across the glimmering afternoon lake sky.

After yesterday’s cool and wet day in Hakone, it was great to return to a warmer and sunnier countryside.

With today being the last day of October we can definitely start to see the autumn colours becoming more vibrant and pronounced, with beautiful orange and red leaves nestling between an ever reducing green backdrop.

The lake and surrounding mountains and dormant volcano have a welcoming atmosphere and we already feel relaxed and comfortable in this laid back part of Nikko National Park.

Mount Natal, dominates the northern end of the lake and has the characteristic volcanic steep slopes and narrow peaked summit.

After enjoying a stroll around the lake and getting some photos of the beautiful scenery, we found a fantastic cafe on the waterfront called Zen, where we sat in deep comfy armchairs staring out over the lake with coffees in hand.

After our coffee stop we walked back to the bus station where we were greeted by a 150 people queue for the ride back to Nikko bus terminal. Thankfully the 45min wait for a bus soon passed and after queuing its way down the steep mountain road, the bus got us back an hour later by which time it was dark and the temperature had dropped to below 8c degrees, which in shorts and flip flops isn’t ideal.

After our restaurant lunch, we had a more casual 7 Eleven styled dinner and have booked a meal at a nearby restaurant for tomorrow evening.

The plan for day 2 is to visit Toshogu & Futarasan Shrines, as well as Rinno-ji temple, Shinkyo Bridge and anything else we can see in around Nikko old town.