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Everything looks better, fresher with a coating of new snow. This includes the Toshogu Pagoda in Nikko and the stone lantern in front of it.
Or even just the stores in front of the Tobu Nikko train station.
On our first day in Nikko the snow became even fresher as it began to fall from the sky while we were at Futarasan Shrine (二荒山神社).
The stone steps between Shinkyo and Rinnoji were amazing in the snow and completely devoid of people.
I could have sat staring at the three, giant, gold-lacquered, wooden statues of Amida, Senju-Kannon (“Kannon with a thousand arms”), and Bato-Kannon (“Kannon with a horse head”) all day were it not for the fact that it was extremely cold so we wanted to keep moving as much as possible. The place is probably crawling with tourists on a normal day, but it was quite peaceful as we were the only ones enjoying the view.
Later the next day (February 3) we participated in a setsubun festival of sorts in front of the Sanbutsudo where the above three Buddha are housed. Japanese celebrities and priests from various temples and shrines in Nikko tossed all sorts of things to the crowd as you can see in the short video I took below. We stood in the back and ended up catching “only” a kit-kat and two balls. We redeemed the balls for prizes (a bag of “goodies,” including laundry detergent and saran wrap, and a gift certificate for a night and two meals for two at a Nikko hotel).
You can hear the priest tell the people to be careful to not cause injury near the end of the video. It did get a little crazy. Some people came away with giant bags of snacks, prizes, and candy. It was sort of like an efficient trick-or-treating session, without all of the walking.
Last week, hoping to see a bit of snowy Japan, we headed north to Nikko for a night. Ironically, the night before we left, Tokyo experienced its first real snow of the winter. The way there was beautiful, with the snow covering shitamachi in Asakusa and extending all the way to Nikko.
We purchased a Tobu Nikko World Heritage Pass, which saved us several thousand yen. Some sites on the internet say you need to show your passport with your “visitor visa” in order to obtain the pass and prove you are not residing in Japan. However, I could find nothing on Tobu’s site stating such. They didn’t ask for our passports or any proof so I suppose this restriction of “foreigner’s only” is either no longer the case or not enforced.
The top photo is of Shinkyo (神橋), one of the first things we saw upon arrival in Nikko. I’m sure it looks great in any season, but I thought it was very nice with fresh snow.
The Sacred Stables (厩神 or umayagami) can be found on the grounds of the Toshogu Shrine (東照宮). I didn’t realize the place was so famous until doing a little research after our trip as no one was taking pictures of it, even though I thought it was lovely in the snow. Actually, there were few people period, which is probably very unusual for Toshogu. A weekday in the dead of winter is a good time to avoid the crowds (and be very cold in the process).
Why is umayagami famous? Because of this:
The oldest rendition of the “see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil” monkeys (三猿) can be found here.