"Although you work hard, your family business will not yet be prosperous. Obstacles and damages are coming over continuously. Whole situation will be really dangerous. Just like black clouds cover moonlight, many accidents will happen. Also it looks like a beautiful lady burning perfume in her bedroom, suffering from anxiety."
Despite this bad news (which made the monk on duty start with alarm), we had a great trip to Nikko yesterday. Nikko is a 17th century religious site created by the shoguns as a place of Buddhist pilgrimage. You reach it via a train that travels north of Tokyo (for at least an hour of unending city and suburbs) before, finally, climbing up into the mountains. There, Nikko sits in the forests of firs, cypresses, and Japanese maples, surrounded by amazing scenery. You walk through this World Heritage Site seeing century-old temples, shrines, and mausoleums surrounded by trees, springs, and streams--all in all, stunning at every moment.
The place was full of tourists, many large groups of Japanese students (some being quizzed by teachers, and filling out workbooks so they learn something from their trip).
There are little spring houses where, before entering each shrine area, people wash their hands and refresh themselves with a drink.
Throughout the area, huge trees surround everything, and old metal and stone lanterns, about seven feet tall, are everywhere.
The carvings, stonework, and metalwork, are amazing. I tried to capture a few details:
There are also huge stacks, here and there, of sake barrels, each about two feet tall, and used as religious offerings:
As a pilgrimage site, there are also religious relics for sale everywhere.
A likeness of one of the early shoguns, some of whom are buried here:
And the area was surrounded by amazing wildflowers as well. This flower would easily be framed by one's pinky-nail.
A cartoonish shrine, child-sized.
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