Nikko - In the middle of the Forest - a shrine... and one more and one more...

Today it was finally time for Nikko, the area, where more than 100 shrines are, there are also some onsen (hot spring), waterfalls and so on. There's even an entertainment park, that looks like an old feudal japanese village, just like old EDO.

The main reason I got there was to see the grave of Ieyasu Tokugawa, the last Shogun, and also to see the whole Toshogu shrine and to see the 3 wise monkeys, who don't hear, say or see any evil.

The trip started in Asakusa (Ningyocho to Asakusa), where I bought the tickets to get to Tobu-Nikko.

I bought a pass for a round-trip, and for free usage of the busses in Nikko. To use a limited express you need to pay the normal fee and an additional rate (special discount in Asakusa, 1.080), it still was a lot, 3.760 for the pass and the express service, but OK, Nikko was worth visiting.

After arriving at Nikko I took Bus C to get to the world heritage area, where all the famous shrines were. After a while and other things to see I finally reached the area of the Toshogu shrine. 1.300 to enter..., the sad thing was that the big Yomaimon, the big and impressive gate was repaired/renovated, but there was still enough to see.

The wise monkey carvings in one building were my first target, it reminded me a bit of the circle of life from LION KING. You can see the story in the pictures.

After that the inner shrine waited, one could get into almost every main hall, but only without shoes and the possibility to take photos.

After the main shrine I walked up all the 200 stairs to get to Ieyasu Tokugawa, the path started with a gate with a sleeping cat. At the end of the path there it was the grave of the last shogun.

The whole shrine took a lot of time, so there was no time to see anything else, like an onsen or one of the waterfalls, so I went back to the station to get back to Tokyo and my hotel.

A nother reason for getting home so early is the thing, that I wanna get up at 3:30AM tomorrow to get to the tuna auction at Tsukiji.

(On my way back I transfered in Oshiage-Skytree to take the Hanzomon Line)

See you tomorrow

Trophies:

"Meet" Ieyasu Tokugawa
Learn from the monkeys
... (maybe one more - no list reachable)