Nikko and Tokyo (Japan)

Nikko is a small town, north-east of Tokyo, which was center of the life in 17th century and furthermore is the place where the story presented in the book and movie Shogun takes place.

To reach the place, we had to change 3 trains. After half an hour walk, we reached the famous red cute Sacred Bridge. It is the beginning of the Toshogu area which includes Futarasan Shrine, Ieyasu’s mausoleum, Rinnoji Temple, Toshogu Shrine, Yakushido, Yomeimon gate. The Toshogu complex is in a wood and is UNESCO world heritage site.

On both sides of the gates were standing huge weird and I suppose scary creatures painted in bright colors. Pretty much the dominated color tone of all buildings – temples, shrines etc – was bright and even it was too much for my taste. I have never thought that the Japanese were/are into bright colors considering their lifestyle and behavior.

After that we went back to Tokyo and went on the top of the Tokyo metropolitan Government building to enjoy the view of Tokyo in the night. On the saw down, we had to take an elevator. The line was long… The person who was serving the elevator was letting people in and pushing the button but he wasn’t traveling with the visitors. Now, there was no max persons number listed in the elevator (or at least I couldn’t see it), the guy was letting so many people in, even was pushing the last ones, we were like sardines in a tin can inside, when he pushed the last ones, bowed like a good Japanese and let us enjoy the tight space. It was just amazingly Japanese experience!

And after that we decided to have dinner in a place recommended in the Frommer’s guide – a “find” and Japanese grill. So couldn’t find it, didn’t know where we were so took a taxi and stopped in front of a small place. A true find – meaning that most people don’t know it. There were only 5-6 tables with charcoals in the middle of the tables. We were the only visitors! The owner was serving us, grilling the food for us in front of us, and chatting with us (plus she was speaking English). Apparently the restaurant has been there for 35 years, she was older lady and very caring like a mother or grandmother, so it was adventurous evening J

So this was the last night in Tokyo and we were ready to take the fast train shinkansen to Kyoto next day.