Tochigi Prefecture is a landlocked gateway north of Tokyo where the UNESCO World Heritage shrines of Nikko rise beneath cedar forests, cool highland onsen resorts fill the Nasu plateau, and potters still throw Mashiko-yaki by hand — a prefecture of mountains, waterfalls, and craft traditions found nowhere else in the Kanto region.
Tochigi Prefecture is one of the best-connected rural prefectures in Japan, sitting directly on the JR Tohoku Shinkansen corridor and the Tobu Railway's Nikko/Kinugawa lines. Utsunomiya is the prefectural capital and main Shinkansen hub, reachable from Tokyo in under an hour. Nikko and Kinugawa Onsen are reachable directly from Asakusa via the Tobu Nikko Line's limited express trains, making onward transfers via Tokyo unnecessary for visitors headed straight to the World Heritage sites. Rural areas — Nasu Highland, Oku-Nikko (Lake Chuzenji), and Ryuo Gorge — are best explored with a rental car or the local Tobu/JR bus network, which is more frequent here than in most other Kanto-adjacent prefectures thanks to steady tourist traffic.
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