The other day I went to Nikko for the first time. That is famous because it's dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu who is a founder of Edo era. I would say it's kida the last era when samurai and ninjya existed. Personally I am interested in sociology of religion so it was very interesting that there are a temple and a shrine in one place. I thought this clearly states Japanese religions mixed Buddhism and Shinto.
I had a beautiful lunch there! This whole course is called as Kaiseki in Japanese. You might think these are not enough to be full, but because you eat a bit and bit slowly, you become unbelievably full!!!!
These three wise monkeys are famous as well. In Japanese, we call them as 'Mizaru, Iwazaru, kikazaru' 見ざる言わざる聞かざる I'm not quite sure but it seems as if it is translated into 'See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.'
This is called Omiki. It's basically sake but you can get this only at a shrine. It's like a spiritual sake. I've been having difficult time to sleep. The next day, I had this sake before going to bed, I surprisingly slept well! Yeah It might be just because I got drunk but let's believe it was thanks to this spiritual thing. This is when I feel interesting about religious stuffs. Personally I don't describe myself as a Buddhist, Shintoist or Christian. (no offense to other religions but I'm familiar with these three) I think if you do any religious acts imagining some kind of God(s), that means you are a believer. In my case, I had this sake picturing some kind of spiritual things so I might be a Shintoist..... I guess many Japanese people have this kind of struggles like 'Am I a religious person???' Anyway if you think something about these things, please leave some comments. I'd like to know what you think :)
This is Omamori like an amulet. There is Indian Sandalwood inside so it smells very nice :)
It was raining on that day but it was very good experience to visit there!
