Nikko’s World Heritage

On the third day we finally went to visit the famous unesco world heritage temple and shrines of Nikko. Perhaps not the smartest idea to do on a Sunday, because the Japanese people love their 日帰り(daytrip) during the weekends. You don’t see a lot of foreign tourists in Japan, but this doesn’t mean you will be alone at the attractions. Everywhere you go you will see lots of 60 or 70 year old people finally enjoying their free time to explore their own country.

The first thing we saw when we arrived on a Sunday morning near the temples, were the local ‘ronnies’ with their tuned cars. They came to visit the temples with their girlfriends and probably also enjoying some cruising with their nice cars. Here you would be afraid to even look at them, but their they were all to proud to be in the picture (check the right picture, they were even waving at us).

At the beginning of the temple complex is a small Japanese garden, which is famous for its beauty in all 4 seasons: sakura during spring, iris during the summer, colorful Japanese Maple Trees during autumns and finally snow in the winter. Small but beautiful. Most of the real Japanese gardens are rather small, but it’s understandable if you see how much work they spend to keep everything clean and perfect. I’ll try to give some more information on this when I write about our visit to the gardens in Kyoto.

Another fascinating thing, is the mixture of people you see when you go visit a temple complex. From super funky looking Tokyoites, to 80 year old people, but of course also the traditional kimonos! And nobody looks the least surprised to any of them, not even the local monks. Nice.

 

 

On the left picture we can see a Pagoda. It’s very famous all over Asia, but every country has it’s specific architecture for it. I think it is used to store old relics. At least, they are always nice to look at.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are pictures from the very famous Yomeimon, gate to the shrines of the tokugawa Ieyasu, called Tosho-gu.

During the autumn period, a lot of nicely dressed up children in traditional kimonos can be seen celebrating the Shichi-Go-San festival (7-5-3). At the age of 3,5 and 7 they have to bring their respect to gods for having survived that long, because a lot of Japanese children used to day at these ages during the Heian period. At least this is the story someone has told me once.

Another small tip, wear some shoes which you can take off and put back on easily when you visit temples, or go to Japan overall. Because everywhere you enter, you’ll have to take off your shoes. On the right picture you can see a Nio called Ungyo, it symbolizes the latent strength, it is represented bare-handed or wielding a sword and has its mouth closed, representing the end of the universe. At most entrances to Buddhist temples these nio statues can be found. It is said that they followed and protected Buddha during his travels in India.

Before entering a temple and praying, you first have to purify your hands with water from a local well. I am of course joined in, clean as I am!

When leaving Nikko we passed by the old wooden bridge once more and could see glimpse of a traditional Shinto marriage. The person on right is her brother and would escort her over the bridge.

Sadly enough we couldn’t witness the whole marriage because we had to catch our train to Nagano! Here is already a small preview of the street where we were staying, very close to the Zenkoji Temple, in the center of the city: