A two-days trip to Nikko
I had a two-days trip to Nikko from April 30 to May 1.
There are famous shrines/temples and it's been the one of UNESCO world heritage site.
This is my first experiance to visit Nikko, but I've loved there soon because they have their own styles against Kyoto shirines/temples.
Expecially, Tosho-gu shrine is good. Usually, the base color(walls, pillers) of the building of shrines/temples are red. But the color of Tosho-gu shirine's color is white. It's very strange for me, but very beautiful.
And the shrines/temples have a lot of carvings. You can find them everywhere .... at gates, room in the shrines/temples and walls. Especially, I like a lot of carvings of animals. They are so cutes.
SHO-YO-EN
A small but beautiful japanese garden.
RIN-NOJI TEMPLE
Beautiful Sakuras are still available because Nikko is far north from Tokyo.
A gate enclosed by huge trees.
TOSHO-GU SHIRINE
The white walls are impressive. And animal curvings are cool.
The 3 monkeys - the one of most famous carvings in Japan.
"Mizaru, Kikazaru, Iwazaru". It means "don't see, don't speak, don't hear".
The right monkey is covering his eyes - "don't see",
The center monkey is covering his mouth - "don't speak",
The left monkey is covering his ears - "don't hear"
Sleeping cat and birds carvings.
FUTA-ARA-SAN SHRINE
This is a gate of FUTA-ARA-SAN Shrine. It's beautiful. I like it.
There are famous shrines/temples and it's been the one of UNESCO world heritage site.
This is my first experiance to visit Nikko, but I've loved there soon because they have their own styles against Kyoto shirines/temples.
Expecially, Tosho-gu shrine is good. Usually, the base color(walls, pillers) of the building of shrines/temples are red. But the color of Tosho-gu shirine's color is white. It's very strange for me, but very beautiful.
And the shrines/temples have a lot of carvings. You can find them everywhere .... at gates, room in the shrines/temples and walls. Especially, I like a lot of carvings of animals. They are so cutes.
SHO-YO-EN
A small but beautiful japanese garden.
RIN-NOJI TEMPLE
Beautiful Sakuras are still available because Nikko is far north from Tokyo.
A gate enclosed by huge trees.TOSHO-GU SHIRINE
The white walls are impressive. And animal curvings are cool.
The 3 monkeys - the one of most famous carvings in Japan.
"Mizaru, Kikazaru, Iwazaru". It means "don't see, don't speak, don't hear".
The right monkey is covering his eyes - "don't see",
The center monkey is covering his mouth - "don't speak",
The left monkey is covering his ears - "don't hear"
Sleeping cat and birds carvings.
FUTA-ARA-SAN SHRINE
This is a gate of FUTA-ARA-SAN Shrine. It's beautiful. I like it.
posted by Masao at
2:16 AM
4 Comments:
Thanks for the virtual visit! This seems to be a nice place, I note this :-)
I knew the story about the 3 monkeys but I did not know if was Japanese!
BTW I looove Japanese gardens. One of my "internal projects" is code-named Teien ;-) I definitely would like to visit a real Japanese garden once!
By
Anonymous, at 9:21 AM
Yeah, I recommand to visit Nikko, if you come Japan.
Teien is really beautiful. I love it, too!
By
Masao, at 10:30 AM
Hi,
Good to see you're also blogging in English. I'm pleased to see that you're blogging about life in Japan because generally speaking people who do are foreigners.
BTW, I've just realized "Mizaru, Kikazaru, Iwazaru" was a pun. "zaru" is a negative imperative but also means "monkey". :)
By
Anonymous, at 7:42 PM
Hi Mathieu,
Welcome to my blog ;).
Please keep to check here.
As you say, "Mizaru, .." was just a pun.
Japanese have loved this kind of word play since long ago ;).
By
Masao, at 8:57 PM
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