Return to Nikko
I visited Nikko in Tochigi Prefecture north of Tokyo from Friday, December 29-to-Sunday, December 31, 2023. It was actually my second trip there in 2023, and my third trip in total. Nikko is a World Heritage Site park featuring two extremely important religious sites: the Toshogu Shrine, burial site of the first Tokugawa Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu; and the Rinnoji Temple, the largest religious structure in the country east of Kyoto. Japanese are very proud of the World Heritage Site designation.
The shrines and temples there were established over 1,200 years ago - destroyed and rebuilt, demolished and relocated many times. The geography is mountainous. The isolation of the mountains attracted aesthetic monks looking for solitude. Down the highway is the modern city of Nikko, home to over 80,000 people. But the UNESCO park is found in a small village some distance from the modern city. It is crawling with foreign and domestic tourists as well as pilgrims. Imagine Niagara Falls, Ontario, or the village of Niagara-on-the-Lake on a peak day in the summer time. Very crowded and busy.
I returned for a second visit in the same calendar year to finish my sightseeing goals. I regretted that on a previous trip, I accidently neglected to enter the Rinnoji Temple, even though I had a ticket for it. In addition, I was keen to get away from the UNESCP park and walk the two separate hiking trails marked on all the tourist maps. That’s what I did. I spent two days hiking my ass off and getting a sunburned face for it. December is certainly not the most picturesque time to visit. Autumn colors have finished, and all the leaves are down, leaving only bare trees and a rather ugly brown and gray landscape.
There is another place in Tochigi Prefecture that I’d like to visit - the Nikko Edomura, or Edo Wonderland, an historic cultural theme park north of Nikko, near the Kinogawaonsen Station. That’s something to think about in 2024.