Nikko from Tokyo: Toshogu Shrine, Lake Chuzenji and Kegon Falls

Nikko is where Tokyo goes when it wants mountains. Two hours north by road, the flat Kanto plain gives way to cedar forest and switchbacks, and the temperature drops noticeably — worth remembering when packing, because the lake sits at 1,270 metres and can be ten degrees colder than the city you left.

The day begins in Ginza and runs by air-conditioned coach with a guide who works in both English and Spanish. The first sight of Nikko proper is the Shinkyo Bridge, a lacquered red arch across the Daiya River that has marked the entrance to the sacred area for centuries.

Toshogu is the reason most people come. It is the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the shogun who unified Japan, and it breaks every rule of Japanese restraint — gold leaf, dense polychrome carving, and thousands of individual figures worked into the gates, all set among enormous cedars. The three wise monkeys are carved here, on a stable block, and they are smaller and less prominent than anyone expects. If you want to go inside, take an option that includes the shrine ticket; on the basic option you have free time in the surrounding grounds instead.

Afterwards the coach climbs the Irohazaka switchbacks to Lake Chuzenji, formed when Mount Nantai erupted and dammed the river, and to Kegon Falls, where that same river drops 97 metres in a single fall. In autumn this stretch is one of the most photographed drives in Japan and the traffic reflects it.

It is a ten-and-a-half-hour day with a fair amount of it on the coach, which is the honest trade for reaching Nikko and returning the same day. Lunch is included only on the all-inclusive option.