Nikko

Nikko lies nearly four hours north of Tokyo. The Lonely Planet describes it as 'majestic temples and shrines in a forest setting' and urges travellers to go see Nikko 'even with the most whirlwind tour of Japan'.

The temple grounds are huge, the scale is magnificent in comparison to anything else in Japan. The temples themselves are ornate, withelaborate guilding and a rainbow palette, which are more like the colourful temples on mainland Asia than the usual simple and minimalist style of Japanese tradition.



Legends has it that one of the shrines was deemed to be so perfect that the markers feared that they would evoke the envy of the Gods, since only the Gods could ever achieve perfection. So, one of the pillars of the shrine was turned upside down as a deliberate mistake.

I thought Nikko was beautiful, though not as much as everyone had enthused. I guess this is because having seen the temples at Angkor, everything else is pale in comparison.