Temples and Tofu in Nikko

Nikko is a mountain town located roughly 500 meters above sea level. As we walked down the main street from the train station, the atmosphere was calm and quaint, reminding me of some of the towns located inside various national parks back in the states. It had a nice small town feel, if you ignored the large hordes of selfie-stick wielding tourists (of which we indeed contributed to) - a short two hour train ride away from Tokyo, Nikko is also one of the most popular day trip locations, for both locals and foreigners.

Most people visit Nikko for the temples and shrines, which was also what we planned our itinerary around. What I didn’t realize was that Nikko was also famous for their Yuba, thin rolls of tofu skin that taste and feel silky smooth. We ended up splurging for lunch at a small family restaurant called Naomi Cha-ya serving nine-course meals including several plates of Yuba. The dishes were very unique ranging from crackers topped with wasabi cream cheese to rice sprinkled with bits of sakura flowers. Overall it was a good experience and well worth the 2700 yen.

Part of our Yuba set lunch

After lunch we hiked up the hill to the main temple area. The main attraction was clearly the Nikko Toshogu, an enormous shrine built in the 1600s dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of the great shogun of the era. A massive torii gate with pillars three meters in diameter framed the entrance to the shrine. Once inside, there were dozens of buildings with intricately crafted wood carvings on the walls and accents of gold. One of the most interesting buildings we visited was the Hall of the Crying Dragon. When you clap two wooden clappers together in just the right spot, the halls echoes with a sound like a crying dragon, which is where it got its name.

Inner gate to the main temple at Toshogu

A wide walking path connected Toshogu to Futarasan and Taiyuin, two other shrines. We decided to pay the entrance fee to go into Taiyuin, the mausoleum of Ieyasu’s grandson, Iemitsu. It was noticeably smaller than Toshogu, but possessed a more peaceful and solemn air, perhaps because there were barely any tourists there. It was nice to just walk around and enjoy the beautiful architecture without worrying about walking into random people every few steps.

Inside Taiyuin, having the shrine almost all to ourselves

We concluded our trip with a visit to the Kanmangafuchi Abyss. Across town on the other side of the river was a short walking trail that followed the river. What makes it special are the numerous Buddhist statues that line the trail. One of the tourist guides we read said that if you walk down the trail in one direction and count the statues, and then walk the other way and count, you will end up with numbers that are off by one. Legend says that it is because one of the extra statues you counted is actually a spirit that appears and disappears. Another tourist guide said that there are exactly 70 statues. We tried counting them both ways and everyone ended up with different numbers, none of which were 70. Either the spirits were very active yesterday or we’re all bad at counting.

Walking along the Kanmangafuchi Abyss

As I write this, we are riding on one of the shinkansen bullet trains to Kyoto, where we plan on touring some more temples and shrines. It will be interesting to see how those temples in a big city contrast with those we saw in the relatively secluded Nikko.

- MC 4/13