Road from Nikko to Tokyo

I just saw a monkey. There is a great forest on the outskirts of Nikko where little monkeys play. One was sitting on the guard rail along the highway as we returned on our bus from seeing the beautiful shrines and temples. It rained today. We bought umbrellas. I bought one for me, not knowing that Aaron was busy buying one for me and one for him. So now we have three extra umbrellas and several silly souvenirs. The ancient temples and shrines are amazingly graceful, beautifully maintained. There are still priests and apparently devout adherents, especially of the Buddhas. My favorite things are the quaint tiny stone temples "used for illumination", as our guide phrased it. They are little stone houses set on tall stone stands where candles were placed for light all around the temple complex. Now, they have patches of moss on them and candles are no longer used. But, they were in active service in the days of the Shoguns for hundreds of years. I am always intrigued by antiquity -- that something was built so beautifully and intricately years ago and then so very carefully preserved for all of these centuries, never swept away in the name of progress. Something I admire about Japan is that the most high-tech buildings in the world can coexist peacefully within view of something built a hundred years before Columbus was born. There is tremendous respect here for the very new and for the very old.