Nikko

On Friday, all 3 of us took a day tour to Nikko. Nikko is a very touristy place to place, but definitely worth it as it has many sites to see. Our tour hit the high points: the Toshogu Shrine, Lake Chuzenji, & Kegon Falls. We spent alot of time on the bus, but what do you expect since it was a day trip. We also picked Friday in hopes that the storm would have passed, but no such luck. It rained and drizzled most of the day, so some of our pictures aren't as bright and sunny as they could be. However, for the most part, they came out ok.

The Toshogu Shrine had 15 different sites to see around the grounds and our tour guide to us to most of them and explained their meanings, etc. I didn't really listen to her because you had annoyed me already with all her talking on the bus. By the time we got to the shrine, I had completely tuned her out. Anywho, we hit the all sites, including the famous carving of the 3 monkeys depicting: See no Evil, Hear no Evil, and Speak no Evil. Mike was really excited to see this and when we got to it, we were all disappointed. We thought it woudl be a larger statue, not a small carving in a building. Oh well. I personally liked all the intricate details on the buildings. It was amazing.
After the shrine, we had a traditional Japanese style lunch which including like 12 different tastings of food. Then we headed over to the Lake Chuzenji, which was cool. It was a bit chilly on the lake, but it was beautiful. I am sure if it had been sunny, we would have been able to actually see the mountain.
Lastly we headed to Kegan Falls, which was also fantastic. I had heard about them, but didn't expect this. We got a couple of pictures of the waterfall from different angles and I personally liked the pictures with all the mist coming across.

Then it was time to head back to Tokyo. We covered alot in a day, but all three of us were quite happy with the tour. We could have dealt with less time on the bus, but overall a good experience. My only complaint was that tour guide!