DGE Ron & Cindy Sekkel's Travel Log

We had breakfast and then did a 3 hour drive to Nikko. We started by seeing the Toshogu Shrine. It is the 17th century to Leyasu Togukawa. The Shrine is magnificent. The colors, carvings, and artwork are what makes one say that. The original monkeys of Hear no evil, See no evil, and Speak no evil are here at the shrine. They are carvings that adorn the panels over the stable. Monkeys are seen as protectors of sacred horses.

The second picture is the Kyozo library and is on the Toshogu shrine grounds. It is the repository of 7,000 Buddhist scriptures kept in a huge revolving bookcase. We could not see inside but it is said that since it is too much to read, the way to gain the knowledge is to rotate the bookcases so that the once the bookcases have rotated by you then it is like you have read them. This would be sort of a speed reading experience.

We had lunch at the Nikko Kanaya Hotel. This hotel is 130 years old and it survived World War II because Nikko was one of the cities that the United States did not bomb. The 3 cities that did not get bombed during World War II are Nikko, Kyoto, and Nara. Jolene Bortz was the first to notice that there was a billboard in front of the hotel which had the Rotary 4 way test in both English and Japanese.

After lunch we drove to Lake Chuzenji which is a volcanic lake, like a crater lake.

After looking at the lake we drove over to Kegon Waterfalls and got a close look at them.
QuickTime movie is available by clicking here. Please note that the file is 3.3 megabytes and requires the QuickTime plugin.

Then we started our 3 hour drive back to Tokyo.

Saying goodbye from the Sofitel Hotel in Tokyo, Japan.

See you tomorrow on the web site.

Ron and Cindy Sekkel.

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