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Published: July 10th 2006
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Gates
A devil statue at the gates. One side of the gate represents the letter A and Z in the Chinese alphabet: meant to symbolize life and death. Before we left FUkushima, we decided to book a day trip to Nikko, a UNESCO World Heritage site outside of Tokyo- actually in the direction of Fukushima, about 130 km from Tokyo. It just happens that its much easier to get there via an organized tour out of Tokyo than it would be for us to make our way there on our own. We booked a tour with the major tour company in Japan: JTB Sunrise tours.
Our bus left early in the morning from downtown Tokyo and it took us almost 3 hours to get to Nikko. Luckily, we weren't a full tour group- only about 20 or so people- so we were able to get moving rather quickly instead of waiting around for more people at rest stops. The first part of or tour took us to the Toshugo Shrine.
We drove through the small town of Nikko which looks like a quaint Japanese town.
In 1616 when the shogun Tokugawa died, Nikko was chosen as the spot for his mausoleum, to which his grandson began building the shrine for. Over 15,000 craftsmen helped build the temple which features elaborate carvings and follows both a Shinto shrine
plan, as well as encorporates elements of Buddhist temples. Over 2.5 million sheets of gold leaf were used as part of the Shrine's construction. There are several buildings, including a pagoda, decorated in ornate stylings that are closer to the CHiense Ming dynasty style and the styles favoured by the military dictators at the time than the simple Japanese elegance that is found elsewhere. All of the buildings are over-decorated and every inch seems painted, carved or covered in gold. The grounds were very nice with trees dating back to the 1100's on the ground. The walk up to the temple was along a gravel, tree-lined path.
One of the famous carvings is over the "Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" trio of monkeys. Monkeys are found in the area and we were lucky enough to see some hanging out along the roads on our way to Nikko National Park. The shrine is the most ornate thing I have come across in Japan and really isn't typical of other monuments and buildings. The comples is so large that we weren't able to see everything. We did managed to go inside another temple which featured The Hall
of Three Buddhas- three giant gilded Buddhas- but like in all temples and shrines, you are not allowed to take photos inside. Nikko was definitely worth the visit, although I think it would be nice to spend some time in the town itself.
After we finished with the Toshugo SHrine, we headed to Lake Chuzenji in Nikko National Park. The drive took us up the side of a mountain with hairpin curves. The lake is about 1300 ft above sea level and you can really feel the drop in temperature. Our guide, who looked like a Japanese version of Tony Danza, told us that even in the middle of winter, the lake never freezes all the way through because of the currents and depth of the lake. The main attraction on the lake is swan-shaped peddle boats which are lined up along the shore. It was really foggy so there wasn't a lot of action on the lake and our group were the only tourists around.
After lunch, we went to Kegon-no-Taki waterfall. Since I'm from the Niagara Falls area, waterfalls don't impress me that much. This one was nice, but was nothing special. The main attraction for
me here was the photographers camped outialong the viewing platform with their telescopic lenses and binoculars. They were shooting wildlife photos. SInce there were very few of us on the tour, they let us look through their camera lenses to see what they were looking at. I took a look at the animal which appeared to be some sort of goat-like creature with fluffy grey fur, even though the guide told us it belongs to the fox family. I have no idea what it is called. We were also told not to bring any white plastic bags with us to the observation deck because monkeyhs routinely hang out int he trees and swoop down on unsuspecting tourists to grab their plastic bags, thinking thehy contain food. There were sings warning against monkeys everywhere. The gift shops even had guards armed with rubber pellet guns to ward off any monkeys that get too close to the store. We were all hoping to see some monkeys in the trees at the waterfall, but we didn't manage to find any. On the way back down the mountain, Rusty and I were in the front seat of the bus so I was able to
point out monkehys on the side of the road and in the bamboo trees along the road. The bus slowed down for us to see, but I wasn't able to get a picture of them.
After the waterfall we were headed back to Tokyo. Our tour dropped us off in Ginza, the high-end shopping area of Tokyo. We were able to stake out a German beer hall with an English menu on display. It can be difficult to find an English menu, even in Tokyo. It's nice to be able to read what you're eating and not have to rely on pointing to the plastic food on display in the front windows of restaurants. I'm getting used to the plastic food displays and I think I will actually miss them when I return home.
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