Day 13: Nikko

After a three-hour train ride, we arrived in the famous city of Nikko. There, we first visited a Buddhist temple that is currently under renovation. Nonetheless, we could still see three gilded wooden Buddha statues inside, which were assembled from wooden splinters.

Less than 200m from the Buddhist temple was the main attraction of Nikko and a UNESCO World Heritage Site: a huge, striking shrine dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of a shogunate dynasty. It consisted of several buildings, including a toilet for gods, a garage for mobile shrines, and an archway with a cute sleeping cat and songbirds symbolizing fragile peace. The holy horse stable of the complex is quite famous, where you can see the famous three monkeys who see, hear, and speak no (evil). They have been immortalized in many WhatsApp chats.

Afterwards, we visited the mausoleum of Ieyasu's grandson, which was also very impressive. There, we took part in a Shinto blessing ceremony, although I didn't understand much of it.

After a walk to the train station, where we saw a beautiful bridge (including wild snow monkeys), we returned to Tokyo. As a pre-final activity, we went karaoke singing again, this time with costumes ;)