Nikko is Nippon

Nikko
May 17, 2011
1 min read

“Nikko is Nippon”, the slogan was all over the place here. Two hours north of Tokyo is the city of Nikko. If Tokyo is Boston, then Nikko is Vermont. It's covered in cedar trees, beautiful mountains and rivers. Just two hours north of Tokyo, it’s a breath of fresh air from the madness of the city.

On my first morning I took yoga lessons from a Zen monk who runs the hostel. I often do yoga (although by no means a yogi!), and was assured that this level of yoga was good for everyone. Let me tell you. It. Was. NOT. He was bending in all kinds of position that I didn’t even know were physically possible. Well, I guess for a tubby Westerner like me, they were not physically possible, but for this guy it was a breeze. I had never been so happy to hear the word “namaste”, indicating my self-induced torture had come to an end.

After freshening up I headed into the town to take in the sights. I really wanted to enter the shrines themselves but it was actually super expensive to go inside, so alas instead I walked around the grounds and admired the shrines from a distance.

On the way back to the hotel I came across Shinkyo Sacred Bridge, built in 1636 and ranked one of Japan's three "finest" bridges. Strangely, you have to pay in order to cross it, but as I didn't need to be on that side of the river, I thought it best to admire it from afar.