Nikko National Park

We took a day trip to Nikko with our cousin Sarah. Sarah flew over with Elin and the kids to help out. We were lucky to have her here for two weeks because with all of the moving in and school registration activity, we really needed her. Thanks Sarah - AKA 007 International Woman of Mystery.

The road into Nikko is lined with what I think are Cedar trees. Some of them seem to be really old because the diameter is huge.

Bridge at Nikko. Sorry, I need to do more investigation to tell you what the significance is. We have information, but most of it is in Japanese.

Savannah at the first shrine. She really took to the peace sign that most Japanese show when they get their picture taken.

Alternate view of the same shrine as the last picture.

Cleansing before entering the Shrines.

Mountain water for drinking. The kids had to drink from every station that they had.

Elin taking a drink.

Garden pictures at Nikko.

Family in the garden.

Sarah finally broke down and took a drink from the fountain.

Peace Ya'll.

Denny at the smaller shrine.

Five story pagoda.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

This gut reminded me of me... he looks like he is ready for archery season. OH YEAH!!!! There are deer at Nikko. I saw deer crossing signs all over the place. I had to stop and ask directions (yes, I ask for directions) and I asked about the deer. I was told that there is a hunting season here in Japan. I am not sure that I will ever get to go, but I am hoping it will happen.

Whiskey barrels. I was told they were offerings from the various makers, but I think it is low cost advertising. Either way... I was thirsty.

This is called a Torii (To ri i). Most shrine have them at their entrances.

I saw these trees with their roots showing and I thought they were kind of cool so I snapped a picture. The wall added to the picture. When I have a camera in my hands I have the tendency to think things are cooler than they are so drop a comment to let me know what you think.

This was a picture I took on the way down from the shrines. The blue sky and the pink flowers on the tree really caught my eye.

We went to the yama (mountain) restaurant and unfortunately, they had a private party going on. Denny and I walked in like we owned the place and we were told that they were closed. It was like Wally World. Anyway, we took a walk to Kirifuri falls. The path is next to the restaurant.

Kirifuri falls.

Elin and Sarah

Nikko has wild monkeys. We saw a lot of them. Supposedly it is hit or miss. We saw this guy on the way down the mountain and took a lot of pictures of him.

We took the windy road up the mountain to the first lake at Nikko. Sorry, I can't remember the name, but I will try to update at some point. We stopped at an overlook and a nice Japanese family took our picture for us.

This was the first of the two lakes at Nikko. Again, I can't remember the name.

On the way back home, we saw this small Shinto Shrine. We went up to it and there was only a woman with a child and one man closing up. There were bells that you can ring and of course Savannah and Denny made a bee-line for them. CLANG CLANG CLANG... I tried to stop them but the woman said it was OK. She went on to explain that she was the wife of the man who was there. He was the Shinto priest that ran the shrine. After that, it was 'go home time'. We had plans to go to Mashiko the next day.

The blog takes a while to update and I have about a week and a half worth of activity to add so stay tuned. We miss all of you. Everyone is welcome to visit. Just let us know.