Japan
Nikkō — Tochigi Prefecture
JapanNikkō — Tochigi Prefecture |
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On an earlier trip I finished the work and then was able to go to Nikkō for a couple of days. Nikkō is about 140km north of Tōkyō, in Tochigi Prefecture.
Nikkō is very nice, although the following pictures with the US$10 camera look pretty awful. This is obviously before I had a digital camera....
After a week of networking protocols, noodles, smoke, and neon, I headed north from Tokyo on an evening train. Nikkō is in the mountains and has a very cool and moist climate.
If you stay in Tōkyō you get the impression that all of Japan is covered in concrete and lit with fluorescent lighting. Not true!
Although the locals do seem fond of concrete and fluorescence.
Nikkō has the mausoleum of the shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu, the Futarasan Shrine, and more. And heaps of visitors.
Lots of large cryptomeria, like giant cedars.
You can hike up the hill through the giant cedars to the tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the warlord who became Shōgun in 1600, establishing the Shoōgunate that lasted until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
It also has the famous "Hear no evil, say no evil, see no evil" carving of three monkeys, at the Shinkyūsha shrine. Really. This is the original. Pretty impressive, huh?
Or "See no evil, say no evil, hear no evil", if you read right-to-left.
Well, if you read the carving right-to-left, but my words left-to-right. Whatever.
The Shinkyūsha shrine, or the Sacred Stable, used to just hold a white carved horse. Now it holds an actual white horse, at least for a few hours out of each day. The horse was donated by New Zealand, and a sign announced that this is the biggest fish in a very small pond: "No other sacred horse, donated from abroad, is serving at a shrine today in Japan." It's the only foreign-donated sacred horse! The biggest equestrian fish in a rather small theological pond.
There was lots of nice scenery, including this view from the local Buddhist cemetery.
I also trekked up the path through the Gamman-Ga-Fuchi Abyss, which is nice but isn't nearly as big a deal as its name makes it sound. It isn't terribly Abysmal, but a nicely wooded valley.
I stayed at the Turtle Inn, a ryokan or traditional inn.
I had a room with a futōn on tatami mats.
It also had a small television set, proving at night that even in the original Japanese the mouths on "Dragonball Z" are not synchronized with the voices.
Turtle Inn's street
Turtle Inn exterior
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