Nikko - World Heritage Site

The second reason for my stopover in Utsunamiya is that it's also near Nikko, a beautiful shrine complex set in the mountains.

I took the 7 am train -- Nikko is about 50 minutes away -- accompanied by students and reverse commuters, in order to beat the crowds. This is a holy place and there were thousands of visitors although 99% were Japanese.

This was the first day I wore my coat. The mountain air was quite chilly.

The shrine buildings are all painted red, the buddhas are in gold, and there are numerous imaginery and real animals, gods, painted on ceilings or represented in sculptures. It is possible to see all of these quite closely, but the holy shrines are off limits to photography and smokers.

There is a sacred horse who visits the 3 Monkeys shrine daily. This is the shrine that has the "See no evil, hear no evil and tell no evil" sculpture. There is a temple with a roaring draggon on the ceiling and the monk demonstrated how it roars with wooden blocks creating an echo.

Half of my pictures of Nikko are of Nature because the comlex is set in the woods. The tall evergreen trees are sublime, the maple were all red leafed, and there are brooks, and pebbles and all sorts of vistas.

It was a sunny day which made it even better.

Back in Utsunamiya, I booked my Shinkantsen for Kyoto, and I finally managed to find an internet caffe near the university town... Sayanora babies