Lake Chuzenji & back to Niigata (snow!)

On our drive back to Niigata, we stopped by Lake Chuzenji. It's a pretty little lakefront tourist town. Reminds me of the numerous towns along the Great Ocean Road drive actually. Many tourist shops and nice cozy restaurants and cafes along the road. On the lake, there are also ferry cruises and little peddle-boats designed like swans for rent.

Unfortunately, a blizzard was just starting as we drove in! (Seriously!) Looking out of the comfortable heated cafe we sought refuge in, we could see the snow flying past horizontally...that's how strong the wind was! So the streets and lakefront were pretty deserted.

Since sightseeing at Lake Chuzenji was quite impossible, we drove to the nearby Kegon Falls and found hordes of tourists there. Kegon Falls (a waterfall) is quite beautiful. It is 97-metres high. You can take an elevator to the bottom to view the plunging falls. There were many big tourist souvenir shops there and food stands selling freshly steamed buns, grilled yakitori and hot drinks.



Check out this super-big senbei (Japanese rice biscuit) we found in a tourist shop...as big as your face!)


The snow was quite heavy while we were driving back to my town (considering that this is actually still autumn...)


And the big shocker when we got back to Niigata...the ski resorts in my area had enough snow to open that very weekend! It was not anything at all like this when I left for Nikko just 2 days ago. I could still see the autumn leaves on trees and thought that m parents and uncle could enjoy the beautiful scenery on the drive back...but now everything's just white. It's still beautiful...but a different kind of beautiful. It was a huge shock to my parents and Uncle Jack though, cos they were expecting autumn weather...haha!