東京の月: Nikko（日光）-The World Heritage Site Volume 1

If you come to Japan and miss its hot spring, it's gonna be so regrettable!!

In fact, Tokyo does not have any natural hot spring except the man made one. So if you wish to experience natural formed hot spring, you could travel up to Nikko and immerse yourself in the slightly stinks hot spring while at the same time enjoy the goodness it brings to you, such as soothes your emotion, improve skin conditions, and of course keep you warm from inside out when you're under 5'C!

That morning Mariko and I woke up early in the morning and traveled for 2 hours in the special train that expressed its way to Nikko. Basically this trip was unplanned because it was already the last week of my stay in Tokyo and I did not have a lot of money left for extra sightseeing and transportation. Fortunately Mariko's father who was so generous agreed to sponsor me when he knew that I had never in my life experienced "onsen" (hot spring) before. I was so lucky cause the whole trip was sponsored by otosan!!

When we reached Nikko, the view was totally different than that of Tokyo. No skyscrapers, only bright blue sky with mountains fell into our gaze. There were fogs surrounding the mountains which gave a mysterious feeling. Besides, the shop lots displayed were in their warmest courtesy to welcome any foreigners to visit to Nikko. Such a good day!!

Before going to hot spring, we must never miss visiting the famous temples in Nikko which were ranked as one of the most influential heritage sites in the world. The temples were near to each other and exhibited fascinating characteristics. Similar to other temples I had visited before, the shrines all had the red entrance and the structure were even more ornately carved than the others. The prominent temples were none other than Toshu-Gu（東照宮）, Rinno-Ji （輪王寺）and Futarasan-Ji（二荒山寺）.

Also we entered a special compartment where we could see the legendary NemuriNeko(眠り猫）, which meant the Sleepy cat. It was said that the cat would only feel sleepy under sunlight and warmth, which is why It would be in Nikko because it's a city of light and warmth. Furthermore, there was the Three Wise Monkeys(三猿） that represented 3 philosophies, which were "speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil". When you observe the monkeys, they actually covered their mouth, ears and eyes respectively to convey the meanings stated above.