Touring Japan - Nikko - Yumoto

110 mins by train from Tokyo and located in the Tochigi Prefecture mountains, Nikko is a popular trourist destination in Japan. Known mainly for it spectacular Japanese mountains, water falls and hot springs (onsens), Nikko makes an attractive and worthwhile day trip from Tokyo.
We visited Nikko during April 2007 and found that it was still very cold when we travelled up into the mountains around Nikko to Yumoto and Lake Chūzenji. As shown in our photos, still lots of snow even though winter was over.

As for Nikko itself, when we arrived at Nikko train station we actual jumped straight on a bus and headed for the hills expecting to do some hiking from Lake Chuzenji to Yumoto via the Senjogahara marsh. Once we arrived, we walked to the Kogen waterfalls which is defiantly worth a look.
Since the weather was cold and snow still coating most of the mountains we decided to skip the hiking and went searching for the famous onsens of Yumoto.

Yuomoto is known for some seriously hot onsens and we can defiantly vouch for this fact. The water coming from the volcanicly charged hot springs is 80 degrees Celcius and travels up a 7 km pipe which "mildly" cools the water before entering the onsens. These onsens are more unique than other areas of Japan due to the water being so close to the source and and untrested. As a result the water is very hot (46 degrees Celsius), has a high concentration of sulfuric acid and apparently holds good qualities for your body.
As for the onsens surrounded by snow, it always looked attractive to me in travel guides and when I finally got to experience it, I did enjoy it. With all said and done... I can describe this experience as follows... When driving in your car in the middle of winter, wind down your window, turn the heater on full power and stick your head out the window.
This is what it feels like to be in the above photo ;)
Matter of fact, I recall standing at the edge of the pool, completely naked and sticking my big toe in the pool whilst realising that it was damm hot but yet I was freezing standing there. So quick decision, I jumped in and sat there for approx. 10 mins soaking up the serenity and then jumped out to find my skin was completely red below the water line from my chest down. Yes! it's seriously hot water.

From Tokyo my suggestion is to take an express train from Asakusa station using the Tobu-Nikko service which costs approx. Y3000 and takes 110mins. Just beware of the train spiltting at Shimo-Imaichi (about 90min).