Nikko

Tyler and I went to Nikko on Tuesday, about a two hour train ride north of Tokyo. It's famous for the carvings of the three wise monkeys (See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil). The city itself has a ton of shrines and scenic areas, including one of Japan's tallest waterfalls.

Our first stop was the Shōyō-en Garden, a Japanese garden near the Rinnō-ji Sanbutsudō Temple. It's over 400 years old, dating back to the Edo period!

Tyler feeding the fish!

We were a bit disappointed that the Sanbutsudō Temple was under construction. They had encased the entire structure inside another building, and then painted what the original looked like on the outside. It was hilarious. We still got to see inside, where there are three, huge golden Buddhas. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside.

Next was the Tōshō-gū Shrine, home of the three wise monkeys.

Three wise monkeys!

The long route to the grave of Tokugawa 
Ieyasu,  the founder and first shogun 
of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan.

We visited a couple other shrines, ate Nikko Yuba (food famous to the area), and then headed to Kegon Falls, one of three of Japan's tallest waterfalls. The falls were formed when the river was rerouted by lava flows. They had an elevator that took you through bedrock to the base of the falls. It was amazing.

Lake Chūzenji, where the waterfall feeds off of.

On our way back, we snapped some shots of the Shinkyō bridge, known as one of three of Japan's most unique bridges and then headed home. Unfortunately, you have to pay to actually go onto the bridge, and by that point, they had closed. It was still very pretty.