Day 5
Nikko
Rin-no-ji Temple
Toshogu Shrine
Taiyuin-byo Shrine
Lake Chuzen-ji &Kegon falls
Nikko
Inevitably into each trip, some scaffolding must fall.

Here is some of mine.

See the magnificent Shinkyo bridge of Nikko.

See the little sign on 
the right showing tourists what it should look like? That's what I call considerate.

Shoyoen Edo style stroll garden with tea house by the ornamental pond.

But First, there were stairs. Lots of stairs, And this is where running up and down stairs every day at work paid off. 

And I spent the rest of the trip being called the gazelle.
Rin-no-ji Temple
But, really what you come to Nikko to see isn't the Frank Lloyd Wright train station.
Or really neat dragon fountains.

It's to see Toshogu Shrine.

It is okay to be Emperor. It is good to be the Shogun. Bankrupt your enemies by making them pay for your shrine. Your really ornate shrine. 

Or as Melinda calls it, the Vegas of Medieval Japan. Well, I guess it's like Neon, only paint.
 
Up some stairs and some stairs and some more stairs, this shrine isn't quite as encrusted as Tosho-gu, but it's still lovely in among the sleeping maple and cedar.

From the shrines we took the bus west to Lake Chuzen-ji. We looked at Kegon falls, named for the Buddhist principle of universal unity. 
I was so intent on trying to take a picture of a distant snow monkey, I almost missed the one that walked two feet away from me.
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