September 26th 2012 - Day 20

Nikko Trip

As I said before, I was away yesterday doing an over night trip to the town of Nikko, north of Tokyo. Nikko is regarded as one of the most Japanese places one can visit; even in the station they have flags says 'Nikko is Nippon'. This Town is the resting place of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the 1st Tokugawa Shogun in Japan, and his Grandson. It is filled with souvenir stores, ryoukan inns and famous sights; a great place to visit.

Although it does take a while to get there. This is the furthest north I have ever visited in Japan (for now) and even though I left at 9.30, and after a combination of Shinkansen and rickety old train, I arrived around 12.30.

Now when I arrived, the first thing I did was find a shop selling the wicker hats that Samurai wore (I will hence forth refer to these as Boshi, because that sounds better than saying hat over and over again). I had planned on getting one anyway, because they keep the sun out of my eyes and just look bad-ass, and the shop I found was selling them cheap.

After that I headed to my first real location - Shinkyo bridge. This is a old bridge crossing over a flowing river, and during their time, only the Shogun were permitted to set foot on it. Today it doesn't quite cross the gap, but one can pay a small amount to walk onto it. I chose not to do so because, well it cost a bit to get up there.

So I moved on to the next stop - a collection of temples up a small mountain. First was not finding the Rinnoji temple, but the more interesting treasure house (mini museum) next to it. When I arrived and was buying my ticket, the people at the front desk were remarkably interested in me because of the boshi, and were very chatty, friendly and even took me to a Japanese garden they had out back and took a photo of me (without me even asking, just goes to show - when in Japan, buy the hat). 

After this I moved on to the first actual temple - Toshogu. There are plenty of reasons for seeing this, but the top 3 are - 1) its a huge, ornate and well preserved temple (and I should know because they were repairing it that day) 2) This temple has the original statue/carving of the three monkeys who are 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil', and 3) the big one - this temple is the resting place of Tokugawa himself. I couldn't tell where he actually was, but I assumed it was the biggest building that everyone was lining up to see.

After that one, I moved on to Futarasen temple - slightly smaller than Toshogu, and enshrining three major deities in Japanese religion (I don't know which ones or how significant in the religion they are, but judging by the temple scale, they must have been important).

The last temple to see was Taiyuin-byo. Nestled only slightly higher up from Toshogu, and lovely adorned with repair tarpaulins, This temple is significant for housing the resting place of Ieyasu's grandson, Iemitsu. Of all three temples this was the least interesting, mostly because all there was to see was the main buildings and some statues of Myo-oh gods (angry gods in Japanese religion. At least I think that's what they were).

Now the last stop I wanted to see was called Kanmangafushi - a secluded nature trail bordered by Jizo statues. I didn't manage to get all the way along to see the large waterfall at the far end (I think that was what was there) but I did get to see some gorgeous scenery. And when I got lost looking for the place, I ran into a pair of kindly old ladies taking their dogs for a walk, who were kind enough to take me as far as the path I needed to get.

After seeing all this, I proceeded to the ryoukan where I had booked to stay that night. Ryoukan are Japanese inns: much more old school than modern hotels, their rooms are almost all tatami mat floored and sliding doors and public baths, where it is customary to wear the yukata/kimono provided, and be waited on in a way that would make first timers uncomfortable (I know, I stayed in one as a kid, it was awkward then). They provided me with a private supper of....ok I don't know, I didn't ask, I just ate until I couldn't eat no more. A lot of fish I think and a lot of food in general, practically a feast for one. After letting my stomach settle, I hit the outdoor baths that they had there, timing it perfectly to when no one else was there, score one for the shy foreigner. Japanese bathing is generally an experience of its own - you aren't allowed to take soap or shampoo into the bath, but have to sit on a stool and use all that with a shower head before entering. But the plus side of doing this in a ryoukan is that they often have an outdoor bath that you can enjoy under a starry night sky....or, at least if its a clear night.