Let us have another look around Nikko, a town north of Tokyo, where the first Tokugawa shogun was buried, who founded the Edo shogunate and finally pacified Japan after a long period of civil wars.
Nikko is famous for its many temples and shrines and attracts visitors from not only Japan but all over the world. If you like to get away from all the busy hustle for a while, then there is Nikko National Park which offers a great scenery with mountains, lakes, waterfalls and hiking tracks. The town is rather small and stretched but the popular places of interested where in a easy reach, but since we were travelling by car there was no problem to get around or out of town for us. And I always like having a drive through the mountains or forests, just to see what it is like and whether we can discover something different or unexpected.
We happened to be in Nikko in June, right in the middle of the rainy season, which of course had a strong effect on our stay, as you can see in today's pictures.
As I mentioned in many articles before, there is no shortage of rain here in the land of the rising sun, which I noticed again today when I looked out of the window. But since I was on my way to discover new places, so there was no excuse to be distracted by such inconveniences.
Everything has its own special charm, and I guess the never ending rain also had the effect that -at least- not all interesting sights were flooded with people. And since we wisely have umbrellas within reach at almost any time of the year, we didn't let a few downpours stop us, especially since we had traveled several hours to get here.
Red is a color that seems to be found everywhere in Japan. Temples and shrines, as well as "sacred" bridges, quickly stand out from the landscape and provide inviting photo subjects. And lush green can be found all over the country at this time of year, thanks to the rain it is sprouting on every corner.
We were lucky and were allowed to make briefly acquaintance with some very special locals, but we also tried not to get too close to them. Wild monkeys are not pets and defend their territories effectively. So if you don't want to fight back and bite them in revenge, you better stay in a safe distance and limit the encounter to a few (difficult to shoot) snapshots.
Those famous locals have also been immortalized at the shrine, in a often shown pose known all over the world.
The temple complex contains the mausoleum of Ieyasu Tokugawa, the first Edo shogun, and this period is still strongly glorified in Japan today and people like to pay homage to the good old days. The atmosphere is of course powerful and makes a real impact, which, to be honest, I couldn't and completely escape, but why would I want to? Japan just works, and that's a good thing!
Lush green in front of a small shrine, the Japanese maple really comes out not only in autumn, but also and especially when the leaves are really nice green and juicy. After the summer, the leaves then turn partially dark red, which also leaves a special impression.
Near the many temples you can find many symbols of Buddhist mythology. And good old Ebisu was at there too. The god of the fishermen and also of prosperity, seems to be a quite pleasant and sociable fellow to me. I hope he'll drop by my place again sometime, I' d be happy to offer him a warm and dry spot.
That was it for today. I hope, you stop by again soon to check out some more photos from the Land of the Rising Sun. I still have a lot to discover, and I'm already looking forward to the next adventure.
Love and Respect !
[//]:# (!pinmapple 36.727767 lat 139.696723 long A little tour through Nikkos temple and shrine complex d3scr)