The morning was spent visiting the stone park in Nikko and doing a short hike around before going to visit Taiyuin Temple.
The stone park is pretty cool with the rows of Buddha statues and it's located in the woods by the river so makes for a great setting. There are also far less people here than in the other temples so it's a great place to visit.
The Taiyuin Temple itself is more a tomb but quite nice and worth a visit, while not one of the top attractions it is a good compromise.
After visiting the temple it was time to head to the station and take the train back to Tokyo. There the first stop was Asakusa and the Senso-ji temple.
Being the weekend and nice weather, the temple was packed with masses of people but this made it more interesting and provided a good contrast to the quiet in Nikko.
A group of students wanted to practice their English so I got a free guided tour of the temple and managed to chat with them about other things, too. It was good fun so I really enjoyed it.
Intrigued by the statues. Do you know the reason why they are dressed up that way, Cristi?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Calvin!
ReplyDeleteThe red bibs and hats are to keep the statues warm, you can read more about it here: http://www.dailyonigiri.com/2009/08/ojizosama-statues-in-japan/