A Trip To Nikko

Nikko is a small town about two hours train ride north of Tokyo. It was a major religious centre and is absolutely full of temples and shrines. While my parents were visiting we we took a day trip there.

Above is the famous Shinkyo Bridge, where you leave town to get to the temple area in the hills to the west. Not pictured: one hundred tourists on the modern bridge trying to take their own version of this picture.

The first major temple is the Nikkozan Rinnoji Temple. No photos are allowed inside but it contains several buddhist statues, and is surrounded by nice gardens. There is also a row of food stands which was handy later for lunch.

The next temple is Nikko Toshogu, a little further up the hill. It's a lot more bling than the others.

Sake barrels are a common offering. I'm assuming the sake is long gone, drunk or sold by the monks.

The temple is associated with Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun. He was a pretty big deal in Japanese history. I think this is a statue of him.

After a long climb from the inner temple you get here: the tomb of the Shogun, tokugawa Ieyasu, who died in 1616.

This is the entrance to the Rinnoji Taiyu-in, the temple where Tokugawa Iemitsu (3rd shogun, grandson of Ieyasu) is buried.

I heard that the temple gardener was not allowed to commit suicide on the shogun's death, and instead was ordered to stay alive and look after the temple grounds. This is still the gardener's house today.

These two dudes guard the entrance to the shrine. These temples have many cool statues but I think red guy is the best one I have seen.

Down from the temple district there's a gorge lined wit these statues, called Jizo. They are common at temples and shrines. This gorge suffers a lot from flods and landslides, and you can see many of the statues have been damaged over the years. And the replacement parts are not always the best...