***
Japan trip
Day 14 - 19th June - Rinnoji Taiyuin, Kanmangafuchi Abyss, Cable Car; Nikko (Part 3)
Next was Rinnoji Taiyuin, mausoleum of the Third Tokugawa Shogun, Iemitsu.
Entrance
It was built to a similar design as Tosho-gu, but on a smaller scale, and without the hordes.
Kaminarimon
Even the washup point was deserted
Inner gate
Dancing God General
Belfry Tower (sic), which was exactly the same as the Drum Tower.
Yasha mon gate
Blue boys in the gate
Karamon gate to inner shrine building
Another karamon at the back
Photography wasn't allowed inside the inner building (again) but the exterior of the building was nice:
Detail of birds
Inside hall from outside
For Y3000 they had "Special dragon arrow talisman against evil and protect from misfortune for eternity" ("永代破魔矢").
Another gate denizen
For some reason I was amused at the water channel at the washup point
I then went for lunch.
Vegetable fried rice
Even in the restaurant there was something to cheat my money. Hah.
Lunch. The rice being so sticky, I don't know how she fried it so well - it certainly was a few steps above usual Japanese fried rice (usually the wok hei isn't quite there). Also, despite it being advertised as vegetable fried rice I'm sure there was meat stock in it.
The tea tasted like seaweed soup. They really like salty tea in Japan. In the local cuisines anyway. Then again maybe it was seaweed soup - the next table all had noodles, and none of them had any tea/soup.
After lunch I made my way to the Kanmangafuchi Abyss.
Amenities list outside a shop. I think my favourite is "Free-to-use bench for rest"
Nikko town street
To get to the abyss I had to cross a river.
There was a power plant there which got a plaque to itself:
"Tokyo Electric Power Company The Second Nikko Power Plant... the oldest among the power plants of Tokyo Electric Power Company"
Path to the abyss
Sorin pillar (?)
Entrance to the abyss
Path
Broken idol. Apparently that doesn't matter.
River
Rock in stream
Waterfall
Inspired by 2 girls, I climbed down to the level of the river.
自拍
I fantasised about going onto a rock in the water but was not prepared to risk my camera falling in.
Like its namesake, a ponytail is good for whisking flies away.
My guess was that these knee pads were for people to pray or meditate on, but I hope I was wrong
Supposedly anyone foolish enough to try to count the uncountable statues gets laughed at by them
Headless Jizo, but they put a replacement head, and a cap on that. Yay.
River and pavillion
Gorgeous water. I don't know what it is (maybe Copper [II} Hydroxide)
Not attempting to count the Jizo statues, I left.
Runoff channel?
"The Stone Cups" - water conduits. The water felt quite cold to me. I hope that wasn't their idea of warm water in winter.
Drain
I then took a bus to Akechi Daira, 1274m above sea level, to try the cable car.
The great view. I knew I should've waited till the onsen to get off, as it became cloudier and cloudier and started to rain as the bus went higher and higher. Moral of the story: cloudy = fog when you're on the mountain
In any case, the cable car was not in operation. And anyway, Lonely Planet 2006 had once again given me wrong information - it would've been a 2 hour walk to the lake from the end point of the cable car (the short walk described in the book referred to a cable car which had closed 5 years ago).
I think I took this because it sounded like it was drizzling though I could see no raindrops
Rolling fog *does* have its charms
I was tempted to walk 2km to the onsen, but the bus was due within 15 minutes and it was uphill, foggy, drizzling and there wasn't much space to walk on the road, so there went my fantasies about walking through the mist.
Bus schedule
All in all, it couldn't beat my Lake Marathon tragedy.
