Thursday, March 7, 2013

Nikko Day 1

A few weekends ago I went to Nikko.  I am so far behind in updated my adventures!

I went to Asakusa in Tokyo and got a Nikko World Heritage pass, which got me round trip train fare and admission to most of the shrines for about 3600 yen.  Not a bad deal!

Rinnoji, the main temple in Nikko was under construction, but I was still able to see some of the artifacts, and walk over the construction site.  It looked like they had pretty much completely demolished the temple and were rebuilding it from scratch.  It will be under construction until 2021!



 Next I made my way to Toshugu shrine.  This was a nice pagoda!



 Here are the famous three monkeys in the left panel; see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.  From the attention they got in the guide book I was expecting them to be a lot bigger!



 Another over hyped thing was the sleeping cat.  It is on a lot of souvenirs in Nikko, but it was super tiny!



 The temples and shrines in Nikko are much more ornate than elsewhere in Japan.



 A close up of some intricate detail.



 I had to stop and have lunch - I tried a local specialty, yuba.  Yuba is tofu skin all rolled up.  Here I had yuba soba, it was really delicious.  Apparently yuba is prominent in the diet of monks, who are vegetarians.



 And the temples continued after lunch!  There was a light coating of snow in Nikko that made all of the buildings really pretty!



 I was amazed that there were no people on this path!  It was a beautiful day out on Saturday.  The sun was really nice and warm.



 There were many of these scary looking statues around.



 After seeing all of the temple sites I took a break in a cute little cafe to look in my guidebook and consult the maps.  This might be the fanciest hot chocolate I have ever had!



 After my little break I went to see the sacred bridge.  It costs 300 yen to walk across it.  I decided to walk across the bridge parallel to it and take pictures of it instead!



 After I checked into the ryokan I was staying at I went for a walk before dinner.  I was racing the setting sun, but I managed to get a small glimpse of Kanmagafuchi Abyss.



 Here there were a lot of Buddha statues.  They all had red crocheted caps and little bibs.  It looks like someone (or a group of people!) must make all of them and replace them as they wear out.



 Hello moon!



 There was a nice little waterfall.  This was about as far as I went down the path, it was starting to get dark and without a flashlight I had to turn back!



 This Buddha was covered in moss.  I think he looks pretty peaceful.



In my search for dinner I passed the sacred bridge again, and it was lit up nicely.



 After finding some dinner I went back to the ryokan - Turtle Inn.  I got comfy in my yukata, which had turtles on it!  I like turtles!

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