Nikko - The shrines and temples

After Tokyo, we went for a few days to Nikko, which is 2-3 hours north of Tokyo by train, depending on how much you're prepared to pay for your tickets. We left our luggage at the station, and set off in search of the information centre, which for some reason was not located anywhere near either of the two train stations, nor near the main bus area either.

When we finally found tourist information, we met a volunteer tour guide. She had just spent about half an hour trying to convince people to come on her free one hour guided tour, with no success, and had come back to the tourist information centre to warm up. She offered to take us on a tour, despite the fact that she should have been finishing shortly, and having had a great experience with a tour at Himeji, we enthusiastically accepted.

We walked together up to the Shinkyō Bridge, where the tour should have started. Legend has it that a priest and his followers wished to cross the river at this point, but were unable to. The priest prayed, and a bridge was formed from the bodies of two snakes, allowing them to cross. Later, the Shinkyō Bridge was built in the same location.

Shinkyō Bridge

From the bridge, we walked up into the temple and shrine district. In Japan, Buddhism and Shinto have coexisted mostly peacefully for a very long time, and most people follow a mixture of Shinto and Buddhist beliefs. However, Nikko is seen a particularly integrated city, with shrines and temples located very close to one another, and some places of worship being simultaneously Shinto and Buddhist, which is unusual.

One interesting thing we learnt was the meaning of the gate guardians, which we see everywhere. The one on the right, with his mouth open, is going "ah". This is the first sound of a newborn, and is also the first letter in the Japanese kana alphabet. The one on the left is going "n". This is the sound made by a dying person, and is the last letter of the kana alphabet. As members of the living, we pass between them to enter the temple.

n

a

Auditioning for a job as a gate guardian

After completing our guided tour of the 5 shrines/temples, we had some lunch, and set off again for a closer look at some of the shrines/temples, as we didn't enter any of them during the tour. Unfortunately my camera was playing up a bit, first user error (I had it on a strange setting, didn't realise it, and could only save photos to the internal memory as a result), and then the battery died on me, not improved by the icy cold weather. However, I did manage to get a few nice photos.