Susan's Shanghai Blog - Week 41

This is the continuation of our week-long trip to Tokyo and Karuizawa in July 2012. Days 5 and 6 we did side-trips from Tokyo to Nikko and Mt. Fuji. Due to the number of pictures, I'll cover Nikko this week and Mt. Fuji next week.

On Day 5, we took an organized tour to Nikko National Park, which is a couple hours outside of Tokyo. As we headed out of town, we went past the Tokyo Tower, which looks similar to the Eiffel Tour in Paris, and for good reason. It was built in 1958 and is 1,033 feet tall, and was inspired by the Eiffel Tower. It is the 2nd tallest artificial structure in Japan behind the Tokyo Skytree, which was built because the Tokyo Tower did not provide the proper coverage for digital transition due to being surrounded by too many high-rise buildings.

We also drove by the Tokyo Skytree, although you couldn't see the top of it due to the cloud cover. When completed in 2011, it became the tallest structure in Japan (2,080 feet) as well as the tallest tower in the world and the second tallest structure in the world.

The Ashahi Beer Hall building is one of the most recognizable modern structure in Tokyo and was designed by a French designer. The gold part on top is the Asahi Flame or Flamme d'Or.

As we started leaving town, along almost every bank of the rivers you had baseball fields and on the weekends (like this day), they were all filled with teams either practicing or having games.

As we drove along, we saw rice fields everywhere (and I do mean everywhere). Japan is the ninth largest producer of rice in the world in rice production.

Then arrived in the Nikko area and the first thing we came across was the Shinkyo or Sacred Bridge. It is a red lacquered span that goes across the Daiya River, and is a really pretty bridge. Supposedly it is a very popular place to have wedding pictures taken. Legend says that the hermit who settled Nikko was carried across the river here by two serpents.

We then got to Nikko, which is a National Park which contains the Toshogu Shrine and the Rinnoji Temple. The first thing you come across is the purifying incense burner, which the people entering the temple use for the healing power of the smoke. For example, fan some smoke towards your shoulder if you have an injured shoulder.

This is the Sorin Pillar of the Rinnoji Temple.

The Stone Torii Gate at the entrance to the Toshogu Shrine is the first picture, and then the Five-story Pagoda that is right inside the gate. The 110-foot-high five-story pagoda is lacquered in red and gold and has a door painted with bold black paint. It was built in 1650 and reconstructed in 1818, and it has no foundation. Instead, it has a suspended pole that swings like a pendulum in the event earthquake to maintain the building's equilibrium and keep it from toppling over.

Next is the Entrnace Gate with these scary guardians on each side. The next building is Three Store Houses, which has colored carvings of animals, including elephants made an artist who had never had seen real elephants.

The Stable house is also called the House of the Three Monkeys, and on the eaves are the famous "Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil and See no Evil" monkeys. It actually has 8 panels which expresses the different stages in life. They include a child monkey looking at it's mother's face with trust, the "hear no evil..." monkeys which are to indicate childhood, then the monkey sitting showing it preparing for independence. Next the monkeys look up to the sky with ambition, then facing its' own life, coming to crossroads, with friends to encourage each other. They then fall in love, then get married, and lastly a pregnant monkey that would become a mother.

There is the typical cleaning area, and then the shrine area, that has lots of buildings (that I won't go through individually).

We also took a few minutes and walked up through the Sakashitamon Gate (Sleeping Cat Gate) in the first picture, up to Ieyasu's Tomb. You can see through the pictures how foggy it had remained, and how steep it was to walk up to the Tomb area.

Kirin Beer has an interesting label. Within the Toshogu Shrine there are many sculptures and pictures of animals including that of a Kirin, which is an imaginary animal which is found 49 places in the Shrine, but also used on the label of Kirin Beer. It is the symbol of happiness with the body of a deer, the tail of a cow, and head of a wolf with a horn.

From there, we went to a local restaurant that provided a typical local lunch. It was quite interesting with alot of different little things. One of the round containers had 3 different levels each with something different, and in the little pot with the fire underneath was a typical noodle soup of the area.

Next, we drove over to the former Nikko Tamozawa Imperial Villa. It was built around a residence of the Kishu Tokugawa clan in Edo (which became Tokyo) but then was relocated to Nikko. The residence was given to the Imperial Household in 1872 and was used as a temporary palace for the emperor and as the crown Prince's residence until 1898. The entire villa has 106 rooms and came from different periods, as it continued to be added-to during different periods in Japanese history. I won't go into detail for these but we wanted to give a view of the villa rooms, architecture, and furniture. You can see different features or characteristics that would indicate the different additions as they tended to use the architecture style that was popular at that specific time. It also has gardens out back, although we didn't have much time to walk through them.

Hmmm... air-raid shelter?

Next is the Kirifuri Waterfall with a total height is 75 meters. The water of the lower side of the falls hit the rocks as if fog is coming down, giving it the name of Kirifuri, which literally means coming down of fog. Mind you, you'll laugh here in a minute when you get to the pictures ... remember .. it was foggy that day!