東照宮 Toshogu

Our journey to Japan brought Soojeong and I to Toshogu Shrine, a shrine dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who founded the Tokugawa shogunate. The shrine is located in Tochigi Prefecture, and it is nestled in a beautiful forest lined with giant ancient trees that line the paths. It took a little while for us to reach Toshogu from Tokyo, but the train ride was enjoyable and the scenery was very beautiful. My friend James had lived in Tochigi Prefecture for over a year and he has always told me how beautiful it is. After making this trip I have to agree with him. There are so many cute small towns, clear streams, mountains, and hot springs, that only a fool could not like the place. I think I would really enjoy living there.

As we neared the train station to head to the shrine, the snow really began to fall. Normally this would be a hindrance to sightseeing, but it only added to the beauty in our case. There is nothing quite a mysterious and beautiful as a shrine that is hundreds of years old and covered in snow. The atmosphere of a shrine is quite different than a church, and I really can't accurately describe what that difference is. Soojeong and I bought a pass to view three different shrines; Toshogu, Rinnoji, and Futarasan. They were all beautiful and Soojeong and I had a lot of fun walking around taking pictures. We stopped for a lunch at a little shop where we watched the snow fall out the window for a while, before we continued sightseeing and getting ready to head to our hotel in a place called Kinugawa Onsen.