Nikko: Last day and much more

Rabbit in Gold Foil

 

Nikko: Last day and much more

I was to travel to Kyoto after checking out. Considering the time for the travel and the timings of the trains I had entire morning at my disposal. Rather I had planned it that way.

For want of time the other day, I could not visit Rinnoji Temple, Mausoleum of Tokugawa Leyasu, Futarasan Shrine, and Shinkyo Bridge. So many others I had to leave for want of time.

Rinnoji Temple Sanbutsudo

Rinnoji temple is at the entrance of alley that leads to Toshogu shrine, on the right side. A magnificent main building known as Sanbutsudo is the most important temple for the Buddhist of Nikko because from here the Buddhism started by a monk in 8^th century. It too had hefty entrance fee so I opted out. There are other shrines behind the main building. Like Komyo-in temple and Inari shrine.

Kyomo-in

Inari

Moss Rocks at Shoyoen Garden

It is equally ornate like the main shrine Toshogu. The confluence of black granite with gold decorations looks absolutely marvelous. I visited Shoyoen garden just behind the treasure house again for a small fee of Y 300. Japanese have really mastered the art of garden-scaping because every garden is always eye catching; whether it’s small or big, dry [also known as rock garden] or with trees. Mostly at the center of the garden, there is a small pond. The banks of the pond are decorated with small rocks or/and big boulders, spread-ed out rough sand and pebbles fashioned in particular pattern, many ornate wooden bridges crossing the pond, eye soothing flowering trees, interspersed between are Japanese pieces of stone sculptures, like a lamp or some Buddhist figure and thus they create a picture perfect!

Shoyoen Garden

Sanctum Sanctorum of Futarasan -jinja

Steps to Futarasan Jinja

After a small walk you reach the Mausoleum of Tokugawa and Nikko Futarasan jinja. 

Both are adjacent to each other, on the right is entrance to Futarasan while the left goes to Mausoleum. As compared to the main shrine Toshogu, Futarasan is less ornate, having less carvings and gold decorations and does not have many buildings. May be that’s the reason, it’s less crowded. At the entrance of the shrine there is a statue of rabbit covered in gold foil. I searched for the references afterwards but could not find anything except that it is one of the Buddhist emblems. For a change there was no entrance fee for Futarasan, the main shrine. The sanctum sanctorum is sparsely furnished and hardly decorated. I paid Y 100 for Mausoleum but there was hardly anything that was apart from what I had already seen.

Mausoleum of Tokugawa Leyasu

Shinkyo Bridge

Shinkyo Bridge is just outside the shrines on a small rivulet, Daiya. The legend goes that the first monk Shodo could not cross the river so asked the mountain deities for help. There appeared two snakes on his prayer who were transformed in to a bridge!!!! Though the exact age of the bridge is not known it is thought to be built in 1636. As of now, Public is not allowed to cross the bridge.

Shinkyo Bridge

It was already 12.30- 1 PM, time for catching the train to Kyoto.

Again the rigmarole of catching three trains, one after the other, as there is no direct train for Kyoto from Nikko or from Utsunomiya either. So it was Nikko to Utsunomiya by small train and from Utsunomiya to Tokyo by Shinkansen. Last leg, Tokyo to Kyoto too by Shinkansen. This time, it was much easier to catch Shinkansen for Kyoto because now I had the experience and Kyoto being a big city on the main line Tokaido-Sanyo, there were many trains.

After settling in un-reserved compartment of Shinkansen to Kyoto, I opened bento box. Bento boxes are small lunch boxes enough for one person.  They are available at the convenience stores in the station premises. Mine had a slice of raw salmon, a piece of shrimp tempura, boiled egg half a piece, cooked rice fit for eating with chop sticks. Some sauce made from beans, vinegar and wine. And few vegetable, one piece of carrot, radish and mushroom each. Bean sauce was absolutely tasty as it had sweet, sour and tangy flavor that went too well with the rice. Except mushroom I finished the entire box in no time that too with chop sticks!

The debate in India always goes on the lines, “Progress at what cost!” And I agreed with those who are for designed progress, for the first time.

Japanese are known for their industriousness along with work-holism. Entire belt from Tokyo to Hiroshima where I travelled next is totally industrialized and urbanized. I could not find a single green patch along the tracks or nearby. Houses, colonies, bungalows, factories industries, flyovers, roads one after the other, nonstop, the sequence did not stop even for a minute for a change. In the end I felt nauseated watching that cancerous progress! Yes, Japanese are in the top few but at what cost! Lives of people run in circles and they hardly relax, overworking continuously!  

At one of the stations on the way, may be Yokohama I got a travelling companion. And that’s good thing about Japan. Japanese don’t mind sitting next to a person from any race which was not seen in many countries I had visited before, including recently visited South Korea. Even Singapore where lots of Indians are residents, a person of Chinese race was reluctant to sit next to me in bus, he preferred rather standing!

She was a girl in her mid or late twenties and turned out to be talkative. Yoshimi Sada was her name. Sada being surname. She was going to Osaka, station next to Kyoto. We communicated with different modes. She was good in English but if she did not understand certain things I used translator on the mobile. I had to use hearing aids rarely as she adjusted her voice to suit my frequency loss. That’s another plus point for Japanese; they go out of the way to help the handicapped, totally.

I asked her to write my name in Japanese. After trying for some time she gave up laughing,’ No it’s difficult to write your name in Japanese!’

I said, ‘But SHI is common in our names, ShaSHIkant and YoSHImi.’ She laughed again and said,

‘No, it’s not like that in Japanese. Your SHI and my SHI are written differently. There are three scripts to write Japanese; the commonest is Kanji while there are other two scripts, Hiragana and Katakana. They are totally different from each other. All are derived from Chinese and while writing, the alphabets overlap.’

And then I realized why there are so many characters even while writing a simple name like Nishi Kasai, English does away with the least number of letters while Japanese has at least 15 to 20 characters, none looking like the other even though the phonation might be the same! I tried many times in future too, to decipher the zigzag pattern but drew blank every time.

We chatted on many subjects. Our voices were not too loud but a lady from the front seat told, Yoshimi to cut the talk short. I found it rude. To preserve your own space you are bullying the other to shrink his! Not fair!

Even though it was not our fault I volunteered to say ‘Sorry’, accepting Japanese culture, to which Yoshimi objected. May be she read my mind.

It’s very common in Japan, at public places you are told, not to take calls on your mobile, you are asked to keep it on silent mode. Not to talk loudly on metro trains. If you converse even in whispering tones, you get thousand stares! So  you hardly see two Japanese talking animatedly. Everybody is in his/her own bubble hardly having contact with the third person!

For sometime our conversation came to standstill but Yoshimi was really interested in knowing India, in general and me, in particular. So we talked about her job, her husband, and her plans to have child, children, her aspirations and my family, my wife, and children. I showed her few snaps of Arsh my grandson to which she replied, ‘How cute!’

On commenting about India her first reaction was, too many people. She had visited New Delhi and was not particularly unhappy about the experience. May be we were on the same wave length.

How the time flew neither she knew nor me. Kyoto was just a few minutes away and I bid her adieu with heavy heart. I did not say ‘Sayonara’ deliberately because it would have sounded too cliché!

‘Hotel Ibis styles’ was again bang opposite the Kyoto station. I had specifically given the list of hotels to my agent to choose the ones nearer to the station.

Room was cozy for one person, again with a nice tub in the bath room. After having a shower I felt fresh and it was time for dinner

Right on the corner there was food outlet named as Nakau-Kyoto Hachijo Entrance. Everything was computerized, right from the main order, to additions to type of noodles or bento boxes. Many permutations –combinations! You just have to select it on screen and within minutes you get your order. I had ordered Udon with Chicken and eggs with lot of lettuce. And a cup of custard. It turned out to be good bargain because it cost me Y 285, hardly Rs 190. It was sumptuous, tasty, filling and satisfying!

I did not take long to fall asleep due to rather a strenuous travel day!