See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil

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Like usual, I picked an early train to maximize my touring time. It takes three hours to get to Nikko, my destination for today. I debated last night not going and staying in Tokyo because of the travel time, but so many guide books and blogs recommended it, I decided to still go. I had to switch trains in Tokyo to catch a bullet train out. I had to switch again to get a local train out to Nikko (it's a small town part way up a mountain). On that train I made a new friends. His name was Rob and he was in Tokyo from Maryland for work, (something to do with bio engineering). He had a three day weekend (I'm thinking he works with the government as a contractor and gets memorial day off - he used to be in the army) so he decided to take some day trips around the Tokyo area. We chatted the entire train ride. I headed to drop off my bags at the hostel while Rob headed on to see the sites. I was not far from the park containing most of the stuff to see, so after getting a map and some snacks from the convenient store to eat lunch on the go I walked there. I am sure glad I decided to come. The area around Nikko is just amazing! It is nestled between tons of forested mountains. There is a crystal clear river running through it. I crossed the bridge, taking pictures of Shinkyo bridge ( you had to pay to walk over it), into Nikko National Park. My first destination was Rinnoji Temple. It was another one of those under construction. However, instead of just shutting down like all the others had, you could walk through and see the statues from the temple shrines. They even opened up a catwalk over the top of the construction so you could see what it looked like to result a temple (due to custom, temples under go restoration every so many years). While I was disappointed not getting to see the temple it was really cool to see the construction. It was from above the building so it gave a great view of Nikko and it's surrounding mountains too.
My next stop was the main attraction, Toshogu Shrine. At this huge complex I ran into Rob again at the top where you climbed a mountain of stairs to the Inner Shrine which is guarded by the 'sleeping cat'. ( I had to get Brett and Sean cat charms from the shrine) The main temple area was obviously recently renovated, the colors were vibrant and beautiful. They had a speaker discussing the building - unfortunately neither Rob not I knew enough Japanese to understand what they were talking about. The next building was called the Crying Dragon. According to my guide book the reason is the acoustics are set up so they echo when there banging is done directly under the dragon painted on the ceiling mouth. Luckily I knew that going in, because they had another speaker and demonstrated it! It was really cool to hear the difference from one location versus under the dragon. It vibrated through the building - awesome!! The last big thing to see was one of the older outer building has pictures of monkeys, including three doing the hear, see, say no evil gestures. This is where it originated! In Japan, the saying is mizaru, kikazaru, iwazaru ("don't see, don't hear, don't speak "). As I told Fred a million times (since noone got his humor here), the Japanese language is very literal so they often find their humor in the way of puns. Zaru in Japanese means monkey, hence the monkeys doing the actions from the proverb. So even religious people have a funny bone!
Outside the shrine there was a stage where they were doing different shows. Since Rob had to take the 4:30 pm train back to Tokyo he kept going, while I stopped to watch. This particular show was a dance where the dancers were in intricate masks and it looked a bit like a battle. I'm not sure what it was about, but boy was it cool to watch. After it finished I skipped Futarasan Shrine and went directly to Taiyuinbyo Shrine, where I passed Rob on my way in. This shrine was smaller but still beautiful. I enjoyed my stroll around it. It has a really interesting moss covered sing wall built up behind it on the mountain side (my guess to prevent falling rocks). As I went to leave a small group of men (I'm guessing monks of a sort) were at the bottom of the shrine stairs changing/praying. (Yes, I was rude and took a picture - I couldn't help it! How often do you see that?).
The lady at the hostel had recommended two hikes. Since I still had plenty of daylight left, I headed down the first. It was a fun hike through the giant forest trees on a rugged cobblestone path. The first half was all up stairs to get higher on the mountain. It ended at a little waterfall and tucked away shrine(and me out of breath). Then I took the other direction back to the park which was even more rugged and I had to basically watch every step. It was so much fun jumping from rock to rock, my own live video game. Guys who I passed on my way back? The monks! They didn't already to find it as amusing as I did. The second hike went first through part of town to the river and across. It brought me to Kanmangafuchi Abyss. I passed Rob again! This was a pathway lined with Buddha statues on one side and the river the other. It was an amazing part of the river with the clear water bubbling up in rapids that crashed on the white swirling rocks. I was in heaven, that view plus the mountains hugging the area was fantastic! There were two waterfalls across from a gazebo so I just say and watched. Perfect.
Making my way back I debated going to one more siteTamozawa Villa, but my legs told me I was done so I walked back to the hostel. I took some time to stop at some of the shops on the way back. Nikko was claiming cheesecake as their main sweet, so I had a Nikko Cheese Egg.(Cheesecake wrapped in a came that tasted of crust- not bad.). Most places close at 5, so soon I was back at the hostel doing of bags and getting a recommendation for dinner. I ended up at a restaurant called Enya. My choices were steak or yakitori (meats and other food on shishkabobs). The interesting thing I noticed as I waited for my good and observing others in the restaurant is that Japanese actually use forks and knives when they eat steak.I opted for 10 random yakitori, rice, and a local Nikko beer. I had to splurge on my last good meal. I'm not 100% sure of everything I got but most of it was good. The only one I didn't eat is some very chewy version of beef (I think) and the hard parts of what I'm guessing is what they had on the menu as cartilage. To close out my meal I had some traditional tea and a slice of cheesecake -yummy! I was so full by the time I left. Back at the hostel, I chatted with my Belgian roommate who is at the beginning of his trip. I gave him some tips for Kyoto his next stop. I found the stalled pages from my J-Hoppers so I DVD him those too in case he stayed in one. I would say Nikko was a great last full day of my trip - a little nature and history to tie all aspects of Japan together.

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