Morning came early on the 4th Day but we all managed to sleep until 6:00 AM and grab a quick breakfast at the hotel. We were out the door by 8:00 AM.
We met our friend, Kobori-san at the train station and after a few transfers was headed to Nikko in comfort on the Shinkansen (Bullet) Train.
Lonely Plant: "Nikko's history as a sacred site stretches back to the middle of the 8th century, when the Buddhist priest Shodo Shonin (735-817) established a hermitage there. Eventually it became a mausoleum for three shoguns."
Nikko is a World Heritage site as well as a National Treasure and I can certainly see why. It was hard to stop taking photos. The intricate carvings and paintings, much of it influenced by China were magnificent.
Once back in Tokyo, Kobori-san was a lifesaver in helping us fill out countless forms in Japanese to reserve our JR Bullet train tickets throughout Japan.
Here are just a sampling of the incredible amount of photos we took in just one day!
We are really loving our stay at the New Sanno in Tokyo. We usually stay at Motel 6s in the U.S. so this is luxurious by our standards.
The Shinkansen (Bullet) train is extremely efficient.
We loved seeing this rather "subtle" way of asking people not to smoke on the train.
We liked seeing two train conductors in front of us who were concentrating the entire time on our having a safe trip.
Uh hunh! Squat toilets! I'm actually getting used to them.
Nikko's 5 story pagoda Tosho-gu dates to 1650 and was reconstructed in 1818.
Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil. These famous monkeys demonstrates the three principles of Tendai Buddhism.
Nikko
More Nikko!
More and more Nikko.
More, More and More Nikko.
Here we are with our wonderful friend, Sam.
Before going into a sacred area, we needed to remove our shoes.
We don't know what kind of flower this is but we thought its fragile beauty was worth capturing.
Here's Sam working on all our train reservations for us. Thank heavens for fabulous friends!
