Nikko, with Amelia

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After Shikoku came Nikko, after one day of sleep and washing followed by a bon odori (summer style traditional dancing festival) at night, which we ended up getting to by Shinkansen. We stayed here for two days and two nights at a beautiful little place called Nikko Park Lodge, with the most accomodating man running it, Zairyo, a buddhist monk who had practised in the US for 20 years, who ran a private Yoga session in the mornings that Amelia and I took. Such an amazing experience to wake up in this beautifully quiet place and do yoga and meditiation to the sound of his chanting. Really magical.

We spent one of our days in Nikko taking our time to appreciate the many shrines and temples, statues and beautiful old forests in Nikko Park, and the next further out at Lake Chuzenji, where we had the BEST Indian buffet overlooking the lake for $10pp... mmm, followed by a look at the 97m high Kegon Waterfall, and a walk around one of the smaller and less visited, yet enchanting, temples nearby.

That arvo, with time to spare, we decided to go up the mountains on the bus to Oku Nikko for one of their famous onsens (hot spring baths- this time very sulferous). With an accidental stop off at a different stop named 'Oku Nikko hotel,' over 5km from the intended destination, and a 1km climb uphill to that wrong hotel, followed by the lovely hotel staff dropping us back at the bus stop to catch the next bus up the mountain, we made it to the desired hotel at Oku Nikko and had the bath to ourselves.

Later that evening we made our way to Tokyo, arriving in time to see Senso Temple in Asakusa lit up at night.

check out the pics to see some of what we saw.

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Photos

Bon Odori
Summer dancing festival, the night before leaving for Tokyo.
Arahori San- My friend who has organised for me and Amelia to take Traditional Japanse dance classes, as of this Friday, for no cost. (Nihonbuyo) Lovely guy, also a fan of Adelaide!

Bon Odori
This is my mate Aya, who is in love with Adelaide and is an ABSOLUTE darling...

Shinkansen
Amelia's first time on the shinkansen...

Nikko
Such a beautiful misty day, 25 degrees (10 colder than where we'd come from), and the perfect mystical atmosphere for the temples we were about to visit

The three wise monkeys
This carving in the Toshogu shrine at Nikko is said to be the origin of the phrase "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil"

Three wise monkeys
So we got a random third little monkey and asked her to be wise with us for a moment.

Nikko
All wooden carvings, all over the buildings.

Nikko
One of the many Narabi-jizo statues lining the Ganman-ga-fuchi path, along the river

Nikko
Beautiful little gyoza (dumplings) joint, with business cards of its fans covering the walls and ceiling

Nikko Park Lodge
The common room/eating area

Chuzenjiko
Our 'view' from above Lake Chuzenji... And apparantly this was CLEAR compared to the day before!