Entries about unesco

...and Shrine day, stair day & walk 25,000plus steps day.

We arrived in Nikko yesterday after our relaxing travel day (be warned there’s another one tomorrow, really I’m just getting you ready for next week when the trips over but I am open for sponsorship so I don’t have to return to the 8-5 job -hahaha). It’s a pretty place on the edge of mountains but I just can’t photograph it how I want.

Today we visited a few more unesco sites, I’ve totally lost count of the number of temples & shrines I’ve seen recently but I will tell you most have been amazing & today was no exception. It’s hard not to take a million photos & really the photos do not do them justice.

Nikkozan Rinnoji Temple Sanbutsu-do

Nikko Toshogu Shrine - if you have to pick just one pick this one it’s stunning

Nikko Futarasan-jinga Shrine

Nikkozan Rinnoji Temple Taiyu-in (warning step steps)

Strolling back towards the city we passed through this beautiful avenue of trees.

I opted to cross the Shinkyo Bridge, photos don’t do it justice but hopefully it’ll bring me some luck.

My favourite part of today was visiting these guys - Kanmagafuchi Abyss there nestled next to gorge, little waterfalls, a peaceful kinda place, I could have stayed for hours. Apparently if you count these guys the number always changes.

Really this is only a small amount of what we’ve seen today, there’s been other little temples, shrines & plenty of river shots.

Today we took a day trip to Nara & crossed off some Unesco sites plus the Big Buddha was on our want to see list. We managed to see 6 out of 8 sites before we ran out of time. So to be brief this was our day

Kohfukuji Temple

Kasuga Yaisha Shrine

Todaiji Temple

Yakushiji Temple

Toshodaiji Temple (we were too late to see in this one bit we still got a look at the outside)

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We walked to the first few temples (yes we’ve well & truly done our steps for today) and you go through the deer park. The deer just roam the open spaces, people feed them, pat them, take stupid selfies......

Tomorrow we are having a proper travel day something like 5.5 hours train travel so I don’t think there will be a blog entry.

Today we moved across to Himeji, our main aim to see the castle. You could see the castle as you came in on the train, it’s stunning. Thankfully Himeji is fairly flat, exploring the castle however is not. You have to remove your shoes (again thankful to be wearing socks) and climb the stairs often steep & a little slippery in socks. Inside is fairly plain not many displays or anything but the views were good.

We brought a combination ticket which included the Koko-en garden, a serene spot neat to the castle with lovely ponds & quiet areas.

Neither place was too busy but it was a little warm and they did mention it was hot to wear your hat over the loud speaker at the castle.

Bit of down time this afternoon so I’m chilling in front of the tv, what’s on you ask....sumo wrestling of course. Here’s one for you to ponder do sumo wrestlers do there mawashi lines (bikini lines)?

Today we followed the self guided unesco sites tour from the travel information, pretty sure we got full value of our all day bus passes. There were a couple of sites included that weren’t unesco & I think we missed one of those, so here they are

Nijo Castle (we feed the fish here....with food from the vending machine)

Kinkakuji

Ryoan-ji

Yasaka Shrine (stumbled across another wedding)

Kiyomizu Temple

Each site was beautiful & yet they were all different.

Starting to feel like I’m wearing out the soles of my socks removing my shoes to enter temples. Tip when travelling to Japan wear socks as clean as the temples look I keep seeing people with bare feet.