Tokyo: Part 2 – Nikko

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil

I’d heard stories about people been squashed onto Tokyo’s subways at peak hour by attendants with planks of wood. I didn’t see any. I got off at Asakusa and met my buddy Tim. We were headed north for the shrines of Nikko.

Nikkos’ history stretches back to the 8th century when the Buddhist Priest Shodo established a hermitage there. But it rose to its grandeur in the 17th century under Tokugawa Iemitsu who built the mausoleum in honour of Tokugawa Ieyasu, a war lord devoted to conquering all Japan. It evokes mixed opinions among Japanese. My impression was that it was of a style more Chinese than Japanese. This would be one reason why Japanese don’t identify their culture and history to the magnificent site.

Shin Kyou is a fine reconstruction of the bridge that marked the spot where the Buddhist Monk Shodo was carried across the river on the back of two huge serpents. Cool. Unfortunately the bridge costs yen to cross so I walked across the car bridge. We entered Tosho-gu shrine through a large Torii gate lined with cedar trees which opened out to a 5 story pagoda, rumoured to have no foundations but supported by a long suspended pole allowing it sway in an earthquake.

Dragons and Dogs

‘Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil’ is a famous mantra and just inside I was confronted by those original cheeky monkeys. The workmanship throughout the shrine is fine, and the creators, worried they would arouse envy in the gods turned one of the pillars upside down as a deliberate error. They needn’t have bothered, as the representations of elephants by someone who has never seen one are fantastically imaginative. However inside the Yomei-mon a famous carving, ‘Nemuri Neko’ (sleepy cat), is lovingly lifelike.

Nemuri Neko

I could say more but the photographs maybe speak for themselves: www.untitled-project.com/photolog > Japan > Nikko or read more on Wikipedia

Back in Tokyo, Tim took me downtown to view the Tokyo Tower with a crescent moon in the backdrop. I’d compare it to a poor mans Eiffel tower. We feasted out at a Yakitori restaurant, before saying our sayonara’s. I sought out another capsule hotel and soaked in the onsen satisfied by a good day out. I planned to rise about 5:30am the next morning to see the bustle and eat raw sashimi at Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market.

Tokyo Tower

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