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This is just a quickie, as I've now seen so many temples that I'm of the opinion that the pictures do the talking. If you really want to know about the beatiful town of Nikko, Google it - I'm going to write about something much more spiritually close to my own heart.

Take a few moments from your work, make a nice cuppa, switch off from the buzz of the office and I'll tell you a story. Some say it is a legend carved in the mists of time, others believe it a fable written by a Buddhist monk who went doo-lally. Either way, the power of the Toshogu Temple complex visited a select few in Nikko last week and I was there when it happened.

This is the story of the Dragon who said "Feck".

History runs through Nikko like the waters of a great river, spilling over the banks, breaking into streams that twist and turn around the town. Floating on that river of great lives, glories, losses and loves, are the stories that hold it together, that give the place its meaning. This is why people come to Nikko. They come, not just for the magnificent temples that proudly stand, wooden and comfortable among the thousands of Japanese cedar and cypress trees, but also for the stories and legends that give the temples intrigue, colour and, above all, power.

The Yakushi-do Hall (the Hall of the Medicine Buddha) is famous as the home of the Dragon. On entering this stunning temple, you are mesmorised by the giant painted dragon that curls and contorts on the ceiling above you. According to legend, if you clap your hands within the main hall, you can hear the Dragon roar. Beat two wooden blocks together and hear its claws scratch against the ceiling. This is a hall of echoes, where, in Buddhist mythology, every noise becomes the dragons own. Thus begins our tale.

Before entering almost any building in Japan, one must take off one's shoes and proceed in socks, barefoot or in the slippers provided. Having done this, we moved towards the steps of the Yakushi-do Hall. It was later on in the day, we'd seen a large number of temples already and fatigue was setting in. Perhaps Vikki's fatigue didn't allow her to lift her foot properly as we reached the top of the small flight of five or six steps. Perhaps the ground was slippery, given that we were only in socks. Either way, having passed the bouncer type monk at the top of the stairs, I turned in time to see Vik lurch towards said monk in a sudden rugby tackle style move.

It was as she fell towards the robed menace at the top of the stairs that she opened her mouth and entered Buddhist scripture and folklore as the woman who made the dragon shout "Feck!".

The monk remained still and unflinching in his bouncer pose as Vik caught herself and stood upright, flicking back her hair (reminiscent of a Bridget Jonesism). But already the word was loose and winging its way into the main hall.

A Sanctity seperated from the real world by only a thin washi (Japanese paper) wall, the loosed "Feck!" made its way easily into the hall, past the gauping tour group, past the tour guide monk (hey, everybody gotta make a buck) and up into the ceiling: to the mouth of the dragon.

I watched from my prime vantage point; able to see both sides of the paper screen; as on one side, my red faced wife dusted herself off and pretended nothing had happened, and on the other side as the tourist group and monks within this most Holy of Holy's gasped in awe and terror as the dragon's voice resonated: FECK, FECk, FEck, Feck, feck, fec, fe, f

As people scuttled from that strange happening, unaware of the source of the dragon's voice, the seeds of a new sect of Buddhism had been planted. Known in Nikko, quite simply as the "Feckers", every October 17th, they will gather and "Feck" together to appease the dragons wrath.

I was there. This story is true I tells ya. No word of fib or exaggeration dost I speak. I witnessed it with my own peepers.

And the moral of the story?

Quite simple really. Rumoured to be the mantra of the wandering Buddha prophet Viksta, it goes something like; "grace, balance and poise are for people who just don't give a feck."

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