Nikko

This weekend Emily and I went to Nikko, about two and a half hours North-East of Tokyo, where there are the most lavish shrines and temples in Japan. Despite it being a bank holiday, the most popular main shrine in the complex was not so crowded, and the shrines and temples off to the sides, which were in some ways much nicer places, were even pretty empty. The rest of Nikko was empty and we walked a lot through remarkably unspoiled countryside.

Although it's the middle of February and Nikko is at an altitude of about 550 metres, there was only a tiny residue of snow in one of the temples and in general it really wasn't cold. On Sunday we took the bus up to Chuzenji Lake, at around 1400 metres, which I couldn't help but think of as only one third of the way to Tibet, and my sweet baby Jesus was it cold! Icy wind with proper snow, yeeesh.

Luckily the Kegon Falls were slightly more sheltered from the wind, and by the time we got back down to Nikko it felt a lot warmer. The whole trip was a fantastic getaway from Tokyo, and while I have already been making a point of getting out and exploring the suburbs of Tokyo every weekend for the last month, now I really see the value in getting out of the city altogether. The landscape changes completely, you breathe fresh air and even if you walk yourself to exhaustion you come back into Tokyo feeling totally recharged.

I put up a Nikko photoset on Flickr.