Originally I intended to spend an entire day in Nikko. But due to some changes in our plans we decided we would dedicate just a couple hours to visiting this city. While there was certainly more to see, we visited the major attractions that Nikko is famous for. So as far as I am concerned, we didn’t miss much. Perhaps we skipped a shrine or two, but I have seen so many shrines already that I do not feel bad about it. Sure, I love to see every new shrine, but there will be at least 10 more that I will see just by going to Kyoto.
We left by 10 o’clock in the morning and headed towards the bus station. Our destination was Nikko Toshogu – a large 17th century shrine complex. This place is also considered as UN heritage site. This makes it a must see destination for anyone travelling to Nikko. The cheapest and fastest way to get there was a one-way bus that runs only once a day. Luckily we got there a couple of minutes before the mentioned bus left. And after a 40 min ride we arrived at the shrine complex. There was an entry fee, but like usually it was fairly small – I think we paid 900 JPY for both the shrine and the mausoleum. The shrine is dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of Tokugawa Shogunate, which ruled Japan for over 250 years until the 19th century. Originally, the shrine was only a mausoleum and was later expanded to become this huge complex. The complex contains a lot of wooden carvings and many of the building are covered with real gold, which is unlike how shrines are decorated elsewhere around Japan. Another interesting fact is that the shrine contains both Buddhistic and Shinto elements – apparently the place is and was used to worship both religions (in the Meiji period the Shinto religion was separated from Buddhism).
Another thing that Nikko is really known for is the Shinkyo bridge. To be perfectly honest, I know nothing about it, nor will I scour wikipedia for information about it. All I have to say is that it looks really cool during the night. I myself did not visit it during the night, but my American buddy that I met last year visited Nikko and the pictures he sent me were simply astounding. As a mater of fact, I like the image he sent me so much, I might as well include it in this blog post.
Before departing for Fukushima, we made one final stop at a local restaurant. Immediately after entering were greeted and shown to our seats. It was a small restaurant with 4 or 5 tables and probably at most 16 people. When we arrived however, only one of the tables was occupied so the elderly restaurant owner took great care of us. I presume the only two people working here were him and his wife. Such restaurants are actually pretty common here in Japan. As described in the previous post, while in Kinugawa we also ate in such a restaurant. These kinds of restaurants tended to live the greatest impressions on me – both in terms of food and hospitality. The elderly man recommended I tried the lunch set, while for my friend he warned her that there weren’t many choices without meat.
He didn’t know much English but he did his best to help us choose the right dish for both of us. He was also super kind and gave us a bunch of guides to read about Nikko as well as a really cool pocket edition book about Japanese customs and such. He also explained a lot about Nikko and when he saw us using the soy sauce, he asked us if we liked it. With and affirmative answer, he headed back towards the kitchen and came back with a soy sauce mixed with some kind of spices. He happily explained to use that this is a combination he made and he would gladly see us try. The added spices did indeed improve the taste of the soy sauce even more! While eating he also asked us if we liked our food and refiled our tea cups whenever we needed. This really was the hospitality one would expect in a 6 star hotel. And the kindness and his curiosity about us did not end here. When we finished our lunch he came back with a box of nicely assorted candies. He offered each of us a candy and invited us to write shortly about our short trip to Nikko in his journal book. Having read a couple of pages, it seems many people before us left their thoughts and had a great time in this restaurant. We of course shared the sentiment and decided to leave a message of our own. I wasn’t really expressive, but I shortly explained our trip so far and thanked the gentleman for the excellent hospitality and kindness.
