Saturday, March 6, 2010
Nikko
Although the weather forecast was for an 80% chance of rain, Friday turned out to be a beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky. We had pre-scheduled an all day trip to Nikko, about a two and one half hour drive from Tokyo.
There area actually two very different and interesting areas in Nikko. The first, the Toshogu Shrine, located in the area called Outer Nikko, was constructed in the 17th century, and is considered the most opulent Shrine in Japan. Toshogu established a military stronghold in the 1600's that went on to rule Japan for almost 200 years. The area consists of several buildings composing the Shrine, and two separate Buddhist Temples. Very impressive.
Inner Nikko is located in the mountains, just above Outer Nikko. The drive to Inner Nikko is a steep climb on a very winding road, rising to an altitude of about 4,500 feet. Inner Nikko is a very quaint mountain resort town located on the largest natural lake in Japan. Native wild monkeys populate the area, and are often seen in town and at the nearby hotspring (which we did not visit). We did visit the lakeside and the nearby waterfall, and did see some monkeys along the way. All in all, we had a great day, arriving back in Tokyo about 7:30pm.
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