in-all-places: Japan travel: Nikko, shrines and temples

Apparently there is a Japanese saying "Never say 'kekkou' until you've seen Nikko”, kekko meaning being beautiful or magnificent! Nikko literally means "sunlight" or “sunshine" and is a small town in the mountains of Tochigi prefecture, founded in the 8th century by one Buddhist priest named Shodo.

As you probably know Nikko's main sights are Shinto shrines Buddhist temples

-a total of 103 buildings, yes! The main three are Toshogu shrine, Rinnoji temple and Futarasan shrine. And around these - there are numerous smaller ones; and with all those legends, superstitions and fairytales well, that felt a bit overwhelming at times, during our visit.

The temples are nevertheless simply beautiful, much more then any other temples we’ve seen in Japan: full with ornaments and carvings, reach in colour, golden leafs, monkeys and birds.

And the entire area is covered by a magnificent forest of cedar trees!

Gorgeous!

We arrived by bus and get a guided tour of the main temples followed by a walk to Kirifuri waterfall (the trip was splendid but the waterfall though scenic, was to far away to be well seen and appreciated). Left the group and stay overnight at one cosy hotel up the hill, on the side of the river.

Next day we finished the tour of the temple site at our own peace and take a stroll around the town, bought some sweets and treats and take in the beautiful scenery.

We left late afternoon by train and had a wonderful trip back to Tokyo, end station Asakusa!

During our tour we traveled by train and by bus and I have to say that the trains in Japan are the most comfortable ones ever, for me.

Tamozawa Imperial Villa (Tamozawa Goyōtei)

Nikko shrines and temples @ in-all-places

The five-story pagoda (the original, donated by a daimyo in 1650, it was burned down during a fire) was re - built in 1818. Each story represents an element - earth, water, fire, wind and aether or void - in ascending order.