We awoke to a beautiful blue sky - another hot day in Japan, although a little cooler here in the mornings than down on the plains.

After Michael's daily jog, and breakfast downstairs, we headed back up through the main street of the town to the tourist information office . Surprisingly, we discovered that you can only buy 2-day bus passes for the region. Our plans for the day consisted of strolling around the immediate area, and so we certainly didn't need a pass for our first day here. Armed with maps, we continued up the road, past the Shinkyo Bridge and across the road into the World Heritage Nikko National Park, renowned for its impressive shrines. Unfortunately, two of the shrines were shrouded in scaffolding, as the shrines are being renovated, which usually means that they are being painstakingly dismantled and then reassembled, a process which can take years. In fact, I read that the renovation of one shrine commenced in 2013 and is expected to take 6 years! The 'scaffolding' of the first shrine we came across was more like a huge, ugly building that had been constructed on top of the shrine. We decided it was not worth paying the inflated prices to go into the scaffolding to view the renovation work being carried out - it would have cost us about $16 each to do so ...and you will recall that we don't have much cash left! Not that that's what stopped us - we just couldn't see the value in paying all that money for a few minutes' viewing time. The same applied for another of the shrines we came across - the impressive gold-covered shrine was also completely covered in scaffolding (this appeared more like a hessian covering), and so again was not worth the cost of entering the grounds. We weren't disappointed, having seen so many shrines and temples already, and we were more interested in hiking through the forest areas. 

Most tourists don't venture past the shrines, and so we enjoyed the peace and quiet as we took a pathway between two shrines, up a long flight of stairs and then down again where we followed a sign to Shiraito Falls. (The woman at the tourist information office had provided us with a walking map, but had advised us that there were too many leaches in this area. We went anyway, and didn't see any!) The path led past an old shrine to the small waterfall. On the way back towards the main road, we past a row of statues of Buddha sitting below a sheer rock wall. I read that, prior the an earthquake, people could see the figures of Buddha on the cliff wall.
 
Once back near the Shinkyo Bridge, we hiked along the main road to a turn off that led closer to the river. We were amused to find a tap on the side of the road that hung over a large aquarium full of gold fish (see photo) . Not far from there was a large cemetery with many statues of Buddhas, all wearing little red crocheted caps. The caps looked relatively new, leading me to wonder who makes them all. On the other side of the river, there were many, many more of these statues wearing the same type of caps, as well as crocheted red bibs. 

On the other side of the river, the path wound through a rock park (with large rocks scattered around), past the Emperor Taisho's Tanko-Poem monument (the emperor stayed in Nikko for about 680 days between 1896 and 1925, and composed a poem whilst walking along he Daiya River), and then past more rows of the red-capped statues of Jizo (Buddhist Guardian Deity). Prior to the floods of 1902, there were 100 such statues - there are now only 74. All were carved by the disciples of ArchbishopTenkai (1536-1643). There were some spectacular views looking over the river as it meandered its way through the valley. The path then veered away from the river, and not being marked in English, we were a little confused as to which way to go next . A young man from Italy - Francesco - advised us that the path he had just gone down had led to a dead end. He accompanied us then as we looked for the correct pathway which would lead us over a bridge back to the other side. It didn't take long to find. Across the other side was a resting area with more of the red-capped and bibbed Buddhas.

Francesco (who lives in Venice) chatted with us as we headed along the main road back towards the township of Nikko. Along the way, we came across a sign to JakkoFalls - only 2kms to get there. It was 4pm, and we decided we still had time to explore this waterfall - one of the 'eight places of scenic beauty in Japan', according to the brochure. This proved to be my undoing. It was the longest 2kms of my life, trudging uphill in the heat, despite there being lots of shade along the way - we were walking next to a forested area. We passed a timber yard as well as many fallen tree trunks, clearly cut with saws, that were scattered on the forest floor . Michael pulled me along by my hiking stick, but it was still hard work. By the time we reached the steps that led up to a small shrine, I had had it. Whilst my lower legs looked OK, my upper legs were stinging - I peeled up my pants and discovered that I had a fiery red heat rash all over my upper legs. By the time I walked down the steps on the side of the shrine (we later discovered that there was a flat path we could have taken, thus avoiding the climb up and then down again!), I was a wobbly, shaky mess. I managed to pull out my tripod and take a few photos of the 50-metre high, 6-metre wide falls that tumble over 7 steps. 

I had anticipated that I might enjoy the walk back down the 2km road, but by now I was shivering and feeling quite weak. We passed a small hotel where I rested on a step whilst Michael went inside to ask to fill my water bottle for me. I encouraged Francesco to go ahead without us, as he was planning to catch a train back to Tokyo, but he insisted on accompanying us until we were at least back on the main road where there would be others who could help me, if I needed assistance. Back on the main road, we said goodbye to Francesco, and plodded along, falling further and further behind him. Michael supported my arm whilst I struggled on, using my hiking stick for extra support. Finally back at the Family Mart where we had earlier stopped for an ice cream, Michael bought me some lemonade - it's not like me to drink sugary drinks, but I sensed that I needed an energy boost. Somehow, I managed to keep on going, despite the waves of shivering that regularly came over me. I thought about Victor Frankl, the Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who survived the holocaust and subsequently wrote 'Man's Search for Meaning' - he had collapsed in the snow whilst marching out for work duties, but with the threat of being trudgeoned to death, he pulled himself up and kept going, inspired by the vision of himself surviving and going on to deliver a lecture on his ideas. He must have felt so much worse than I felt right then! The thought of resting on my hotel bed kept me going, one step after the other.

Finaly, the 5km trek back to the hotel was over, and I lay on the bed, utterly exhausted. Michael went off to a supermarket he'd discovered on his morning jog and came back with a selection of instant noodle dishes, and a sandwich for me. The rest helped considerably, and I was eventually able to shower and climb into bed where I ate my sandwich and occupied myself on my iPad. 

Lights out at around 9:30pm.