We drove through the village and arrived at the entrance to the shrines. The contrast of the ancient buildings, with their bright orange exteriors, against the bright white snow was dazzling. We parked up and explored the ancient site. In total there were 15 shrines, temples and tombs. The place was amazing. It felt like somewhere Mr Miagi would have sent the Karate Kid to focus and train before the big fight. Whack some motivational music in the background and we would have had ourselves a movie.
The Toshogu shrine was the main focus here. There was a monk living inside and as we entered he did this amazing thing with 2 wooden sticks and the acoustics inside. There was a large dragon painted on the ceiling, and when we clapped the sticks together under the tail there was a very slight echo. When he clapped the sticks together under the dragons head, there was an enormous echo sound with lasted for a lot longer. Traditional has it that this was the roar of the dragon and if you can hear it, you will have 7 years of good luck. We both heard it, nice!
So, we're up in the mountains, it's snowing heavily now and it must be about 2 or 3 degrees. We arrive at the inner shrine and are told we have to take our shoes off before we can go in. My feet have never been so cold - I'm surprised I didn't get instant cramp! And even inside the shrine, things didn't warm up. The floor was ice cold and again felt like some kind of test the Karate Kid would be put through!
After the shrines we headed for a local restaurant for a spot of lunch. By this time we were starving, and the cold weaher made us crave warm food. We weren't disappointed and had a great lunch in Nikko village. Noodles, tempura shrimp, some very intresting vegetable dishes, rice and traditional puddings. Went down a treat.
Back on the road now and heading for Nikko lake and waterfall. Snowing very, very heavily now...
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