Everything in Japan has been amazing, but one of the best days yet was the tour through Nikko, a World Heritage site. Unfortunately the day began a bit late since we also had to move from Imaichi - so we only had about 3 hours to spend at the temples of Nikko!
We arrived in the town of Nikko shortly after 11am. As usual we saw horrified faces as we dragged what seemed like hundreds of suitcases into the Kanaya hotel. We couldn't check in until after 1pm, so we stored all our luggage with the desk and went on a brief tour to the famous red bridge which was right next to the hotel. We spent about 30 minutes there before rushing back to the hotel for lunch. Lunch and dinner at the Kanaya Hotel were probably the most amazing meals I've had in Japan. Not for the food so much as the elegance. Beautiful table settings and impeccable service. Wow!
Finally around 1pm, we set off to the temples of Nikko. I cannot express how simply amazing this area is. It is a Unesco World Heritage site and has multiple temples at the location. We weren't able to visit them all, but we were able to check out some of the most historical sites. One of which was the famous "Hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil" monkeys. They are carved into the side of one of the temples. It was fun to watch all the tourists waiting to pose next to the monkeys covering their eyes, ears and mouths!
We were very lucky that we had such well connected guides on our tour. In two of the areas, we had some of the monks? give us special one on one information and in one of the temples we even got to go in an area roped off from the public. It was fun to see all the other tourists gawking at us wondering who we were and why we were able to get such special attention.
I have put several photos from Nikko on this website, but it's just a fraction of what I have taken. Unfortunately, we were unable to take photos inside most of the buildings.
After Nikko the original plan was to take us back to the hotel to check in, but it was only 4pm and we wanted to see more. So we convinced our Rotary tour guides to take us up into the mountains to see the National Park. It was a very windy road with 48 hairpin curves. We also saw a bunch of wild monkeys on the way up. Apparently the monkeys are very aggressive and will attack anyone they think has food, so we had to keep the windows on the bus closed - that is why the photo I posted is so bad!
Once we got to the lake near the top of the mountain, it started snowing. We were all dressed fairly warmly, but it was still freezing cold! We rushed about to a few sites including some beautiful waterfalls and then headed back down the mountain after about an hour. I could see why the driver wanted to leave so soon, once we headed down the mountain, the fog was so thick you could barely see the road. I felt like I was back home for a moment!
Once we got back to the hotel, we had about 10 minutes to change for dinner. We met with four of the members of the Nikko Rotary club and saw their large collection of banners from Rotary clubs around the world. It was so cool to see banners that were obviously more than 40 years old - one from North Oakland that looked like a 60's or 70's concert poster and an old confederate flag banner from Mississippi - I bet you don't see those anymore!
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