State of affairs

Could not take in much of pessimistic news all at once. It's a drizzling Friday morning, sipping a hot coffee will only have your mood to read the most pleasant of the News. But reality strikes sooner and leaves you with a waht-could-I-do feeling.

Lauch Rediff.com. Navigate through the new design and try as much as possible for the old layout to not influence you in understanding the new one. Finally after some clicks land on the featured columsn of Business page. You read an article on the state of affairs in Indian Railways... phew. IR's net addition of tracks in the last 15-20 years has been a meagre 3000 Kms. Whereas, it's 6000 kms per year for China! IR moves Cargo at an average of 15-30 Kms per hour. But China does that at 200 Kms/hr. And still we will grow at 7-8%.

Open ToI and after a few clicks land in the Chennai City page. Central TN Ministers have made 4 trips a week (on an average) between Delhi - Chennai in 2008. That's about spending 84 lakhs for tickets alone. TN Govt.'s expenditure of boarding, lodging and private vehicle for them don't add in. Ok.. OK. Tht's it. Now no more such news.

Come to the New Indian Express. An Asst. Director is killed by an uprooted tree at Ashok Nagar in Chennai. Residents blame Corporation for planting such trees which grow quick but the roots of which do not penetrate deep enough to be stable. Corporation guys blame the Forest Dept. officials for making it next to impossible to feell trees who inturn blame the NGOs and Activists. Now these NGO's and Activists argue that it's not tree management that needs to be done rather traffic management.

Now.. wait, for heaven's sake, there is a loss of life and you still want to circum navigate your fingers? Is this the plight of an ordinary citizen.

What's happening in this country? My mind is still hanging in there with that thought.... not going any beyond.

Nikko

We went on a trip to a place called Nikko. About 200kms north of Tokyo. Excellent winter landscape. Enjoyed the snow and beauty of the place.

This place is beautiful in every season of the year.  Missed my chance during Autumn.  But it was extremely beautiful in Winter.

We started out in the morning at 5AM from our home.  Nikko is around 200 Kms north of Tokyo.  Takes a good 2.5 - 3 hrs to reach.

Nearing the place we get to see the snow-clad mountains.  A dormant volcano.  Nikko is surrounded by mountains on all sides and houses a lake at about 1300m above sea level in the middle of the mountainous landscape.

Once we reach the foot of the mountains, it's a an hour long travel by bus to the top of the mountains.

The first stop is the lake Chuzenji.  A beautiful and serene fresh water lake.  The temperature was better and so the lake was not frozen.  Lake Chuzenji (Chuzenjiko) is a scenic lake in the mountains above the town of Nikko. It is located at the foot of Mount Nantai, Nikko's sacred volcano, whose eruption blocked the valley below, thereby creating Lake Chuzenji about 20,000 years ago.

We Could not resist the temptation of playing with the snow during our first encounter with snow during the trip. 

Water was frozen in many parts near the lake.

Water flows from the Lake Chuzenji down through a canal and finally falls to be called the Kegon Falls at this place.  A few 100 meters nearby.  The almost 100 meter tall Kegon Waterfall (Kegon no taki) is the most famous of Nikko's many beautiful waterfalls. In fact, it is even ranked as one of Japan's three most beautiful falls, along with Nachi Waterfall in Wakayama Prefecture and Fukuroda Waterfall in Ibaraki Prefecture. 

Kegon Waterfall is the only exit for the waters of Lake Chuzenji. It can be seen from a free observation platform that is easily accessible on foot, as well as from a paid platform at the base of the falls. The paid platform is accessed via a 100 meter deep elevator and offers the more impressive views. The sight of Kegon Waterfall in combination with Lake Chuzenji can be enjoyed from Akechidaira Observatory, which is accessible by ropeway from Akechidaira Plateau.

A 10 min ride further up gets us to the place of Ryuzu falls which is upstream of the lake Chuzenji as opposed to Kegon falls which was downstream. 

The final place of the day called Yumoto Onsen at the highest point.  Prominent for skiing.  But we were late for the day and couldn't get a chance to Ski.. :(