Drive To Almost Nikko

What better way to kick off the new year than to tell you about shit that happened in 2012. My neck is stuffed so I am at home and have free time so why not get the backlog out of the way…

The cat and I got into the car and went for a drive. We had a general Idea of direction but no destination was planned. We headed up Mt. Akagi at first and were worried by the piles of snow on the side of the road. Being late autumn, we new some snow had already fallen but we expected less. There were some threatening clouds in the sky too but they dumped their load on the peaks slightly above the level of the road.

When we reached the crossroads on the other side of the mountain, I went straight. I had been left before. I had never continued on. Mission mungness was on! It paid off. After driving through Numata, we reached the Fukiware Falls. One of the more famous sights in Gunma and one of the few I had not seen before.

I also loved the atmosphere of the souvenir shops and restaurants along the pathway to the falls. They were out of a distant past that one would have a hard time imagining tin the same country that is famous for it’s cities and technology.

Back on the road We decided to head toward the Oze National Park but at the turn off I noticed a sign saying, Nikko… 20km. We pressed on. After all, the Nikko Shirane touge is one of the most awesome I have ever driven and The cat had ever been to Nikko before.

The snow however had other plans for us and on summer tires in a rear wheel drive sports car, I was eventually forced to do a handbrake turn and go back down. (Maybe not forced to do the handbrake turn… but rather to turn around…. the handbrake turn was for fun.)

We went back down toward Oze only to find the road to the national park closed for the winter. We called it a day and went home via Shima Onsen. All in all… A fun drive.