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Introducing Nikko – Japan guide

Nikkō (in Japanese:日光市, Nikkō-shi, literarily “light from the sun”) is situated 140km far from the North side of Tokyo, right in the middle of the National Park of Nikko, on the mountain discrict of Tochigi. It is easily reachable taking the Nikko line from the Asakusa station in Tokyo. The whole travel takes about two hours.

The JR station in Nikko is the most ancient in the Eastern Japan: it was made by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1915. Many buses leave from here going to the most important touristic places, but take this as an advice: walk by feet the street from the station to Tosho-gu, it just takes 15-20 minutes.

On the Ote-dori Avenue you can find many artisan crafts shops, the joiners making the geta, the famous Japanese sandals, are the most popular. You can also try a famous restaurant called Hippari Dako, next to the Shinkyo bridge: you may taste the specialiy tzuku-me, chicken meatballs skewers. The first temple you’ll see while walking to Tosho-gu is the Rinno-ji, made by Shodo Shonin in the 8th century.

The legend says that over 1200 years ago the monk Shodo Shonin was stopped in his journey to mount Nantaisan because of Daiya river. He begged for a bridge and his wish came true: a giant dressed in blue wearing a skulls necklace appeared, growling “Here’s your bridge!”, and throw two snakes, blue and green, over the river. So the monk could cross the river and both the giant and the bridge disappeared as soon as he could reach the other side. Right in this spot is now placed the red Holy Shinkyo Bridge. Once it was reserved to the samurais, but today everybody may do it just paying: that’s why I suggest to cross the side road, from where you can still admire it properly!

In the temple of Rinno-ji – the biggest building in Nikko – you’ll see the Sambutsu-do, also known as the “three Buddhas hall”: it refers to the three golden statues featuring the Amida Buddha, Senju Kannon and Bato Kannon. Beyond this hall there’s the Treasure room where all the precious of the Edo age are displayed.

Behind here, a nice path crosses the garden and the small lake among little bridges and stone lanterns. Coming back to the main street you’ll see the temples group called Tosho-gu, made by Tokugawa Iemitsu (1603-1651) in 1634, to honour his grandfather Ieyasu and show the power of the Tokugawa shogun people to other daimyo (feudal lords). Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) was a very important hostorical personality for Japan. In fact, he was the founder of the ancient capital city called Edo, now known as Tokyo. He also was the one who made the Tokugawa family powerful, starting the homonymous age. It was the two-centuries-and-a-half long samurai era, until they lost power in 1868. During his life Ieyasu was worshipped as a god, after his death he was considered a gongen (embodiment of Buddha) instead. He chose the name Tosho-Daigongen to play this role, and it’s what the temple is called after. About 15.000 craftsmen from all over the Country worked to the most beautiful temple of Japan restlessly.

Over the entrance to the Tosho-gu temple there’s a huge granite torii. On the left you can see a five-floors pagoda representing the five elements: earth, water, fire, wind, hollow. It was donated by a daimyo in 1650 and completely remade in 1818, after a fire. Going upstairs there’s the Nio Mon door, protected by two Nio statues: one of them has its mouth open like pronouncing the first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, “ah”, the other one has it closed like saying the last letter “un”.

Walking through the Nio Mon entrance you’ll reach the first yard of the temple. Many buildings are all around, and among the decorations one in particular is very famous although many people don’t know its origin: the bassorilievo featuring the three monkeys “don’t hear, don’t see, don’t speak”. Their meaning is “Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” and they’re assumed as the guardians of the temple.

Keeping on walking the path between the Drum Tower (left) amd the Bells Tower (right) – symbols of birth and death respectively – you’ll reach the Yomei Mon door, also known as the “sun entrance”, then the sanctuary itself. The Yomei Mon door was the ancient limit for the less important samurais, while common people were banned from the Nio Mon door. In the sanctuary two more warlords whom the temple was dedicated (1873) to can be worshipped besides Tokugawa Ieyasu: Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) and Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199). On the right of the main sanctuary there’s a path where the Sleeping Cat paint can be seen if you pay 500¥, and you may buy his talismans too! Not far from here the stairs start; walking through the vegetation you’ll reach the Treasure Tower, where Tokugawa Ieyasu’s ashes are kept.

Another very important temple in Nikko is the one dedicated to Tokugawa Iemitsu, Ieyasu’s grandson, who also wanted a sanctuary to be worshipped! It’s the Taiyuin-byo, placed in an extraordinary Japanese cedar wood. Like the former, this is a group of buildings that consists in a walk that leads to Taiyuin’s tomb (the buddhist name of Iemitsu) crossing six doors. The first door is the Nio Mon entrance with two Nio warrior gods assumed as the guardians of the temple.

Right in front of this spot there’s a granite source with a dragon reflecting in the water below, painted by Kano Yasunobu. If you keep on walking you’ll meet the Niten Mon door with four guardian statues put inside niches: in the foreground there are the gods Komoku and Jikoku, in the background the green statue represents the wind god, while the red one is the thunder god. After a few stairs up you’ll find the Drum and the Bells Towers, symbols of birth and death like the ones described formerly. Not far there’s the Yasha Mon door, also known as Botan Mon, or “peony door” because of its floral decorations. The fourth one is the Kara Mon door, which is the entrance to the main outer sanctuary called Haiden: it keeps Kano Yasunobu’ works. From now on the entrance is usually forbidden to the public.

Over the Haiden there’s the Honden, an inner sanctuary with a golden altar and a statue of Iemitsu. On the right, the Koka Mon door made in Chinese Ming style leads to the last entrance, then to Iemitsu’s tomb. While visiting Nikko you should not miss the Chuzen-ji lake and the Kegon falls, next to the holy mountain Nantaisan. They can be easily reached by the buses travelling from the train station to the East lakeside of Chusenji. Mind the travel sickness, since the road is narrow and winding!

Prices in Nikko

Visiting the sanctuaries costs about 300-400 ¥ each. At the Rinno-ji you may buy one ticket to visit them all (about 1300 ¥) and the entrance to the Sleeping Cat in Tosho-gu is included.

Hotels in Nikko

Nikko is easily reachable from Tokyo and just one day is enough to visit it, so close to the city you will only find Japanese style inns.

Pension Hillside Terrace (tel 0288 54 3235): Nice and neat place with excellent food. Pension Turtle (tel 0288 53 3168). Nice place close to the Tosho-gu temple with comfortable rooms.

Kanaya Hotel: Very elegant hotel founded in the XIX century nect to the Daiya river. From 20,000 ¥ (204 USD) to 50,000 ¥ (510 USD). Phone : +81 0288 54 0001 – fax: +81 0288 53 2487 email: nikko@kanayahotel.co.jp – web: http://www.kanayahotel.co.jp/english/nikko/

Web resources:

http://www.toshogu-koyoen.com/ - temple of Tosho-gu

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We nicknamed it the “hunt & fishing shop”. There we bought some shirts and slacks. To find pants and socks we went to a 24/24 minimarket that are very common in Japan. They’re called “Family Markets” and they sell a bit of everything, from instant ramen to batteries, which is very pratical. There are three main chains: the Family Mart, the ampm and the  7eleven; the prices were really cheap. Against the general stereotypes, the food and the transportation are very good and cheap in Japan. It’s the lodging fee that’s incredibly expensive. Around 6 times the income of a medium family.

Here it is one of the 3 typical 24/24 shops, You can also find postcards and stamps, here.  You can buy some delicious hot Nikuman.

After the shopping we returned to the hotel and the receptionist informed us that our bags were found and that they would be there right in time for check-out (I also had to talk on the phone in Japanese to an employee of the lost and found office °_°) on the 24th August. The godly fox granted our wishes and our climb was worth the pain!! After some rest we went to eat. This time we chose a little family restaurant in the middle of the shopping street. We ate really good stuff. I finally ate a giant cup of white rice and roasted eel. Delicious!

Here you can see my dinner, on the left is the rice with eel, in the middle sweet & sour meatball, than the miso soup, the tofu an half boiled egg, fruit-salad and salad.

Afterwards, we returned to the hotel (our futon was already set) to choose our next destination. The Kiyomizu temple and again the Fushimi Inari to give thanks for the “luggage miracle” seemed like good ideas. We also wanted to take some other pictures. We fell asleep really early.

The morning after we began with another super huge breckfast: new strange food for us, too, this time!

The second day breakfast, everything was very good, but I couldn’t eat some thin fried fishes. Maybe becouse they still had their eyes, they where watching me °_° . The white rice, miso soup and tea were great, though.

Since the first day we came to Japan we kept seeing news about a very big man. Every day, all channels, always the same pictures. Later, we eventually found out that he was a sumo wrestler! In the beginning we didn’t notice it a lot, but after three days of the same news and discussions about him we began to be obsessed with him, too!! He was always there. He won the Japanese championship and that he was born in Mongolia, apparently. He was coming back there to get care for mental disorders °_°

Here it is the tv news, there was always the same scenes, him riceiving the cup, him walking at the airport, him plaing soccer and riding a (poor) horse, those disturbing pictures were with us all along the trip…

After the great wrestler scoop, we headed to the Kiyomizu Dera, a wonderfull temple in Kyoto. It’s high balcony is well-renowned. It’s said that since the balcony is a bit independent you have the sensation of falling. Though, we didn’t really notice it. Maybe because there was a lot of people. The ticket to get in was pretty cheap, though.

We tried to reach on feet the temple using cards and street signals, too… and…  well, we got lost!!

The main door of another temple we found while looking for the Kiyomizu:

This one was certanly a wonderful temple too, but the Kyomizu was waiting for us. We were losing our hopes when we found our salvation in a parking lot! A TAXI!! Japanese taxis are peculiar since they are all laced on the inside and the passenger door is automated, it is a bit upsetting to see. So we took a ride to the Kiyomizu Dera and found that we were still far from it; the driver was very kind and explained us where we were and the names of the places we were moving through. The ride was not expensive, either. There is a fixed bill of about 650 Yen up to 2 km, after that there is an extra per km. The last section of street was walkable only.

We were on an uprising street filled with souvenir shops heading to the temple and at the end of it we were in front of the red and white temple door.

After the gate we founnd another stairway an the fountain. While rising we notice the bell that’s used to announce the new yaer by hitting it 108 times.

The staiway to the main temple:

This is the bell that’s used to announce the new year:

The temple was wide, mainly built in wood, with the big and renowned balcony. We bought the tickets and entered…
in the next photo you can see the right side of the temple entrance.

The middle side of the temple entrance

We looked at a big altar in the middle and found that it was filled of little statues (shinto and buddhist), the kiyomizu dera is indeed a multi-religious temple. Coming closer we noticed a statue of Daikoku, one of the 7 luck deities.

In the temple you can also find buddha statues with the relatives bodhisattva. Mostly those sculptures are placed in the most inner an darker place so the pictures are not perfect. Even so the beauty and the holyness of the buddha amida was obvious.

A classic rappresentaion of Buddha trinity among his bodhisattva. Each Buddha has bodhisattva; thay can be thought as some sort of saints

The sight from the balcony of the temple. During the winter it shoud be clearer ^^

We took some pictures at the balcony and we moved to the torii we saw before hoping to find Inari. This is the Torii at Kiyomizu dera, the stairway leads to many little shinto altars.

We found here many souvenir and omamori sellers, but due to our loyalty to the Fushimi Inari Taisha we didn’t buy anithing, the prices were also a little higher. We found the Fox!! It was there waiting for us, so we passed by to say hallo ^^ At the Inari altar at Kiyomizu dera (even if it was just a “branch” of the main temple) we prayed and made a little offering. Even so, we were going to return to the Fushimi Inari to thank the Fox for the “luggage miracle”.

There were many other little temples. There was also a statue of Daikoku. If you touch it and ask for a wish, then the god will sooner or later make it true. We didn’t do any praying to him to show our faith in the Fox ^^

Here it’s the little altar of Daikoku, the one on the left is the statue that grants the wishes

Here you can see it in detail, obviously it’s touched a lot since it’s all smooth and shiny:

There was also a big stone with a shimenawa around it, It was the only and true love stone…

All you have to do is to touch the stone and then reach it’s twin to the other side of the yard, without looking; If you make it you’ll find your beloved one. If someone helps you, You’ll have to be helped from this person also in finding your love. While walking around we saw a lone pagoda. The Pagoda wasn’t that big, but was very fit for the place, it was almost it’s natural place ^^

Along the road we could see the Kiyomizu from afar and in a more complete way, it’s really spectacular. It was build in 798 dc and it’s the most ancient in Kyoto, due to some problem with fire though it was re-built many times. The last one was in 1633, the Edo era. This temple is also recognised as a Humanity Treasure by the UNESCO.
Following some picture from afar, great huh?

Here you can see better another pagoda:

Another side of the balcony:

Along the street and among the trees there were a red torii with a statue of Inari.
It seems that Inari is really loved in Japan!

There are always two foxes facing each other, the only difference is what they have in their mouths. This is a close up picture of the belowed Fox!!

After a long walk around the temple we arrived in front of a little spring, it was crowded°°.
It was apparently the “eternal youth fountain” that grants long and healty life!!! It was too crowed and hot to wait around, though… U-U

Once out of the temple we ran back to the Fushimi Inari to buy some more omamori. The priestess learned to know us and was almost placing the red carpet for us
Once in hotel we refreshed ourselves and got ready for our last (but not the least!!!) dinner in Kyoto. This time we had Okonomiyaki. We found an underground restaurant that served them. There was a hub incorporated into the table where you could keep your okonomiyaky hot while choosing the dressings. Okonomiyaki are really “dense”!! Okonomiyaki are good, but heavy… on the table there was also the paddles to turn around your okonomiyaki.

Afterwards, we had a little walk and than we went to sleep. The day after,  our bags finally come back!!!
Well then… our experience in Kyoto finishes here!! Next time: Tokyo!!!  Bye!!
.::Yuki_Sakuma::.

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