Japan is a beautiful country with tons of heritage sites. I have visited a lot, but the one I love the most has to be Nikko. In this post, I will be revealing 6 places that I have visited and highly recommend you guys to visit as well! Read on to see what’s so cool about this “Nikko” place!
- Toshogu Shrine 東照宮
Toshogu is an UNESCO site built during the Edo period, by the shogun family of that time, Tokugawa. It contains both Shinto and Buddhist elements at once, as before Meiji period, the strong influence of Buddhism has fused with Shinto and became one kind of believe in Japanese, until Meiji, the two different beliefs were forced to be separated, but for Toshogu, those have been deeply blended and couldn’t separate them clearly until right now.
Take a picture with the famous 3 monkeys 
- Shinkyo 神橋
The sacred bridge. It is ranked as one of the three most beautiful bridges in Japan. Shinkyo is the landmark of Nikko before crossing to the National Park, Shrines and Temples site where the gods reside. Crossing it also symbolize crossing to the sacred site of gods.
The Shinkyo 
Look how beautiful is the emerald water under the bridge! - Kegon Waterfall 華厳の滝
The most famous waterfall among all in Nikko, height about 100 meters and ranked as top 3 waterfalls in Japan. Look at how beautiful it is! It is more popular to visit during autumn, apparently it is amazing during summer as well!
Summer Kegon Waterfall - Chuzenji Lake 中禅寺湖
Kegon waterfall is the only exit for the water from Chuzenji Lake, now let’s have a look at Chuzenji Lake!
- Kinugawa Suspension Bridge 鬼怒川
I walked so far to reach this suspension bridge but we loved it. The view from the bridge is stunning too. What made us to come over to this place no matter what? Here is the story. Kinugawa in translation means “River of Angry Ghost”, it sounds cool, so we decided to pay a visit and found out the Ghost is a ghost turned itself into a shield and protecting the river everyday. Interesting! Hence we took a picture with him.
- Edo wonderland
My personal favorite!!! What makes me so deeply in love with Nikko is that, after we visited so many places of history, the desire to discover more about mysterious Edo period only got stronger instead of being fulfilled. So the second day of trip we entered this wonderland. Theme park – Edo Wonderland.
For a cultural trip, I don’t think I will ever want to visit a theme park. But this is NOT JUST A THEME PARK. If you really want to experience travel back in time, this is totally the place!
There are so many activities, shows, games, experiences to explore in the wonderland. Few of the most memorable ones for me are the ninja show (Edo is the period of Ninjas! You can even see ninjas walking around!) , went into the ninja house (My friend couldn’t stay the dizziness and went out half way), the water festival (changes from time to time), and the Screaming house.
We thought it was a shrine and ended up it was a Haunted house. 
Experience making shaved ice on our own 
The slanting Ninja House! 
Me trying so hard walking in the ninja house 
What’s best during summer? 🙂
Anyone feeling wanna visit Nikko after reading this? As I said, travel back in time in this historical site. Nothing could be more interesting than this if you are a history buff and loving the culture.
Check the link below to checked where I’ve stayed (BUDGET HOSTEL) and HOW MUCH to get there and have fun in Nikko!
I spent only 15,000jpy to enjoy Nikko! (2D1N)
Somewhere Not Far 
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