Mom Haggerty's visit - part 4, sadly the end

Tuesday, May 29th, we checked out of the Nikko Prince Hotel and headed back toward Central Nikko. It was a warmer, more seasonable day with lots of sunshine. We stopped to look at another waterfall. This one (from what we could determine from the plaque) is a man-made waterfall. Still very pretty tucked among all the trees.














We toured the five shrine/temples of Central Nikko. This time of year is very popular for school trips and we saw plenty of students. It was amazing to me how many more details Ian and my eyes picked out this trip. Dragons and intricate paintings and textures. Incredible! We know mom felt amazed too because she took even more pictures than we did.

We couldn't help hamming it up in front of the "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkeys at Tosho-gu Shrine.



Just look at the size of those cedar trees!

Walking to Futarasan Shrine.

Addy stops to smell the flowers.

Taiyuin-byo Shrine captivated us a second time too. Again, it was in the details. We all got a workout climbing the steps to the top of the shrine. Gambatte Addy-chan!

Two of the oni, demon guardians. Amazing colors.

We finished our tour of Nikko with a stop at the Shinkyo. In April we arrived at the bridge after closing time and didn't get to cross. This time we were able to walk across. Well almost. Since the entire bridge is sacred, one end is permanently closed. So you start at one end of the bridge and walk as far as you can and then turn around. Still, many beautiful views from the middle of the bridge.




We returned to Tokyo that evening. The following day was cloudy and rainy and cool. We attempted to go out and do some shopping, but we were unprepared for the weather and returned home. We spent a quiet evening at home for mom's last night with us. Ian returned to work on Thursday and Addison and I escorted mom to Narita Airport. We were all sad and a little misty when the final good-byes came. Poor Addy didn't understand where Gran was going. I told Addison "Gran is going back to America". She replied "Merry-go-round"? We were all blessed to have this visit together.