Day 156: Never say 'kekko' until you've seen Nikko!

With the sprawl of Tokyo behind me, I'm spending a few days relaxing in Nikko. Nikko is a town nestled in a river valley a few hours by train north of Tokyo. It's famous for its temples and shrines, but its also surrounded by beautiful nature and excellent hiking. The word 'kekko' in the Japanese saying (see title) means beautiful, so you know it has a pretty good reputation.

Today I mostly focused on the temples and shrines, but did a bit of hiking in the afternoon. The main group of temples surround the mausoleum of shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, and a lot of them are very decorative, covered in elaborate carvings and gilding, which is a bit unusual for Buddhist temples.

Perhaps the most famous thing from the entire group of buildings, however, is a fairly simple carved wooden panel on a small stable.

Those are the three wise monkeys, Mizaru, Kikizaru and Iwazaru who together represent the principle of "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil". The monkeys/principle are pretty common in modern culture (Google's "do no evil" derives from it), and the panel in Nikku is thought to be where the entire concept originates from.

There's lots of other things to see around Nikko. Steep forested hills plus lots of rivers tend to lead to some pretty nice scenery.

Tomorrow I'm planning another ambitious hike. I'm going to take a bus out to Lake Yunoko in the morning, then walk the 15-20km back to town. My feet felt fine today, but if I have any problems there are lots of opportunities to get back to the main road and take the bus home again. On the plus side, this time it's mostly relatively level ground.