Lake Chuzenji 2019: Walking the North Shore

It takes a few minutes to walk down the road from Ryuzu Falls to the north shore of Lake Chuzenji and thankfully the rain was dying down by the time I got there. A group of SUP boarders was paddling to the shore as I started moving east along the lake. It looked like it was a group with one instructor and two students, and I remember one of students fell off their board into the lake. I’ve never done SUP boarding myself but a peaceful spot like Lake Chuzenji seems like a good place to learn.

I walked further east along the trail. In 2017 I had hiked this same path and everything was still familiar to me. For long stretches I didn’t see another person and aside from the occasional passing car on the nearby road I only hear the sounds of nature. Thick clouds still covered the sky and everything was very wet but the rain had stopped and I wouldn’t need my umbrella for the rest of my time at the lake. Every step was one step closer to my departure from Lake Chuzenji and I tried to enjoy the moment as much as I could. I knew I was getting close to Chuzenjiko Onsen when the sightseeing boat passed by me again and I started seeing small fishing boats on the water. Soon enough I was back at the town and I got on the bus back to Nikko. My time at the lake was over, but I still had a few more things to do in Nikko before moving further north into Japan.