Nikko

May 6-7 

We headed to Nikko Monday morning after Laurel and the kids had already left for a long day of baseball. We left ourselves too little time, so we were running through Tokyo station looking for the right office to activate our Japan Rail (JR) passes. Sweating, we made it to the platform with just two minutes to spare, saving us an hour of waiting for the next train. As advertised, the trains in Japan really do leave exactly on schedule. 

Nikko is Japanese hill country, with a beautiful mix of dark evergreens and light spring leaves giving the hillsides a mottled green look. The weather was unfortunately overcast and a little drizzly as we caught a bus up to the main temple complex a few kilometers outside the station. 

The temple complex at Nikko was founded about 1400 years ago by a buddhist monk, eventually growing into combination of Buddhist and Shinto temples and then being greatly expanded to house the mausoleum of the first Edo era shogun. Torii gates were everywhere, which apparently serve to separate the mundane from the sacred in the Shinto religion. Some of the religious carvings and statues felt vaguely reminiscent of Hindu shrines with intricately detailed people and animals, but overall it still felt very uniquely Japanese. In addition to the tourism the complex continues as an active religious center. There were many people praying, tossing coins into small shrines, and setting out votives. 

The rain picked up and we headed back to our tiny hotel room. We decided to pick up dinner and breakfast and snacks for the next day from the nearby grocery store, getting a variety of prepared foods to heat up in the microwave (so much plastic :-( ). Eating super cheap we got three meals for $30. Our food budget has definitely increased in Japan. 

Mottled green hills

Grocery store dinner!