Nikko

A lot has happened since my last blog post in August, including some travel for work, vacation, and now the government shutdown. But now that I'm back in Tokyo and furloughed, I have plenty of time to tell you about my day trip to Nikko in August!  

Pagoda outside Toshogu Shrine

Nikko is about 2 hours outside of Tokyo. It's lovely there, and it would be great to go back and stay the night so that I can better appreciate some of the hiking and such nearby. But in August I went with a friend on a day trip to see the most famous sites: the Toshogu Shrine and the Shinkyo Bridge.

The Toshogu Shrine, which dates back to 1617, is the mausoleum for Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate.   

The larger shrine complex, which was built in 1634 by Ieyasu's grandson, is "lavishly" decorated with A LOT of carvings and gold leaf and is really quite stunning. It has a number of famous carvings, such as:

The monkeys!  Hear no evil; Say no evil; See no evil.

The cat

The elephants on this warehouse

You can read a small description of the symbolism behind the cat here.  

There's also a famous "crying dragon" on the ceiling of a building. I couldn't take a picture inside, but you can see it here.

Pre-restoration wall (but still in good shape)

The shrine complex is in the middle of a big restoration, and the Yomeimon Gate will be covered with scaffolding for the coming 6 years. However, there's still *plenty* to see, and from what I can tell, the restoration will be well worth it.

Post-restoration wall.  Bright, dramatic colors!

The main shrine is really pretty, but no pictures are allowed. These are of the entry gate.

And this is right next to the tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

After walking around the shrine complex, we tried to find the Rinnoji Temple, but we followed the map, and I'm not sure that was the right thing to do. It led us to a big warehouse-looking building that had a temple painted on the side. Uhm, no. There was another little road that we didn't have time to walk down that may have the building that we would typically think of when going to see a temple. 

So then we walked down to see the famous bridge, which was built in 1636 and is considered to be one of the three best bridges in Japan.

It was a great day trip. Next time, I'll try to find that temple or hike to one of the famous waterfalls nearby.

As a parting gift, here is a picture of a snack food we found at the rest area on the way back to Tokyo - locusts!