Nikko (Mar 28th)

One of our sight-seeing goals this trip to Japan was to visit Nikko, a World Heritage site.  We decided to day a trip to avoid having to find a hotel, so we got up early and left the apartment at about 6am.  The trip took us to Tokyo where we transferred to a special line that ran out to Nikko, called the Tobu Skytree line, after grabbing our breakfast at a nearby Starbucks.  We arrived in Nikko at around 10:20 (so 4 hours of train travel).  We walked our way up Nikko's main street and stopped by a noodle shop that was recommended in our guide book but the owner's said they weren't going to be open for another 20 minutes.  So we shopped around a little and came back to the best noodle dishes I have had in Japan!  The Curry Udon was amazing, as well as the yakisoba.  And the ceiling and every wall was covered in business cards, photos, and notes from previous customers attesting to how much they loved this little noodle shop.  Not wanting to be left out, I wrote out a thank you on a strip of photos that we had got at the fair last year and tacked it up! 

 Now it was time to explore all the world heritage sites - starting with this sacred bridge.

This bridge was made for royalty.  You can cross it for a fee or use the car bridge for free.

It was really beautiful with the river running underneath and the mountains in the background.

Next we entered the cedar forest where all the shrines and temples are located.

The first temple was under construction until 2020 but they had built a huge building over it so you could see them working on the temple, and we also got this great view of the valley that Nikko is located in.

There was a viewing area to see the temple taken apart and being reconstructed.

There were lots of pieces!

Another viewpoint

There were also many gardens

Next we headed up to the most famous temple that had the most ornate carvings and is also the burial location of one of the famous shogun of Japan in the 17th century,

This was the entrance amidst the huge cedar trees.

All the buildings had lots of gold plating.

These are the famous wise monkey.  "See no evil, 

hear no evil, speak no evil"

There were many, many carvings like this around the building, I especially liked this peacock one.

You can see the dragons carved under the roof of this building

The famous "sleeping cat" although I'm not sure why it was so famous - it was only about 12 inches wide while I was expecting something much more elaborate.

Now we walk up the path (and lots of steps) to the mausoluem.

These were guarding the gate to the temple.

The famous 5-story pagoda.

And now we were on to the last temple that we visited (we toured 3 out of many)

These were some of the guards at this gate.

Again, lots of ornate carvings and gold plating.

At about 4:00 we headed back to the train for another 4 hours of travel.  We stopped halfway in Tokyo and attempted to go out to eat at another restaurant recommendation but it was full and we decided to simply get some Family Mart food and eat our dinner on the train.  Besides, it was cherry blossom festival time and in our short walk from the train station to the restaurant, we witnessed some very drunken persons (my favorite was the woman pushing her significant other down the street while he looked mostly passed out while somehow still standing).