Nikko

Jason and I knew that we wanted to do a day trip to Nikko from Tokyo.  Unfortunately, Nikko had rain in the forecast for every day we were in Tokyo.  

To get there, it required that we took a shinkasen from the main train station and then get on a local train.  It turned out that the shinkasen we needed to take home was a major commuter option, so the original option we wanted was booked.  This is the only time we had any issues with booking the tickets we needed to.  

I have bundled three temples that we visited into one larger post for simplicity.  We visited:

• Toshogu
• Taiyuinbyo
• Rinnoji

We also visited the Kanmangafuchi Abyss.

I will start with Toshogu as this was the largest draw to Nikko and also one of the most impressive things we saw while we were in Japan (and it had pretty serious competition).  

Toshogu is the shrine and mausoleum dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, which united Japan under a single ruler and moved the capital to Tokyo (Edo).  His grandson built the shrine and ensured that his shrine (just around the corner) was less ornate as a tribute to his grandfather.

This shrine is where the famous monkey carving is!

Monkey hear nothing, monkey say nothing, monkey see something

The details of this shrine were wonderful.  The use of black was rather unique and the amount of gold used throughout the shrine.  The carvings were intricate.  

See the details in the carvings -- no surface was left untouched in this shrine

Within the main shrine, we were not allowed to take pictures, but the lanterns and ceiling details were beautiful.   Look at all the shoes -- you can see how busy it was!

We did wish at this shrine in particular, people used raincoats instead of umbrellas.  As you can see in the photo, it was quite crowded and the umbrellas take up a ton of space.  The guards even had to limit how many people could be at the top of the shrine and on the stairs.  

We then headed to Taiyuinbyo, the shrine to Tokugawa Ieyasu's grandson, Iemitsu.  This shrine was multi-tiered and each terrace had a view.

These four guardians protect the temple.  When you compare the statues with the earlier ones, you can see that while these are elaborate, they do like some of the grandeur of the earlier ones.

Beautiful views from each terrace

Relative to the other shrine, this one was less popular and way more spacious.  It had a similar structure though and the ornamentation is a similar style.  

After this shrine, we went to Rinnoji.  Rinnoji has been and will continue to be under construction for a number of years.  They have really been rebuilding it from the ground up.  The roof is all being replaced with all new copper shingles.  The construction team has literally built a new building completely around the existing temple.

The outside of the temple

We then left the temple and headed to the Kanmangafuchi Abyss.  On our way though, we saw this really interesting purification font in the square.  The dragon was fierce.  

We walked about 20 minutes from the temple and shrines to the Kanmangafuchi Abyss.  On the way there, there are a number of statues of Bake Jizo.  The Jizo seem to move and never are in the same place!  The views of the abyss were beautiful.  The lava pools were beautiful.  

We then scurried back to the train station and headed back to Tokyo!  It was a great 12 hr trip!  Well worth the day trip -- we wish we could have gotten a day without rain though!  It was starting to get a little chilly!

Time in Nikko: 7.5 hrs
Times visited: 1
Overall: A