"Ancient moss clinging to a stone wall, rows of perfectly aligned stone lanterns, vermilion gates and towering cedars... Scattered among hilly woodlands, Nikko is one of Japan's major attractions." - LP

The World Heritage sites in Nikko include Tosho-gu, Rinno-ji and Futarasan-jinja, three ancient temples of the Edo period (1600 - 1868). They lie in beautiful woodlands of cedars and various deciduous trees of which, in autumn, the maples are the most striking. It is not a large town but it seemed to be teeming with visitors during our stay there,perhaps it is always the case or perhaps it was especially busy then because of the magnificent autumn colours.

It rained on our first day of sightseeing and we joined throngs of people and their colourful umbrellas, undaunted by the weather. Fortunately we had slightly clearer weather on the next two days when we took a crowded tourist bus to one of the lakes, the trip itself offering better scenery than the lake destination.