Here is the translation of the words on the side for those who are interested. Some of these are very old kanji so I can’t read them well, please leave a comment if you can read it better than me and I will update the post….

宇都宮市 　＝　うつのみやし　＝　utsunomiyashi = City of Utsunomiya

有志者中　＝　ゆうししゃちゅう = yuushishachu = Brave Man

明治三十年　＝　めいじさんじゅうねん = meijisanjunen = 30th year of Meji Period (it was built)

岡崎雪? ＝　おかざき　= okazaki = (Built by) Mr Okazaki

錆 ＝ ?? ＝ ?? ＝ built (best guess)

これを鋳す ＝ これ を い す ＝ koreoisu ＝ cast , Minted . 鋳 is the key kanji that means to cast, mint or coin. ( thank you nihon jin for this weeks kanji lesson )

The first temple in Nikko was founded more than 1,200 years ago along the shores of the Daiya River. However, in 1616, the dying Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu made it known that his final wish was for his successors to “Build a small shrine in Nikko and enshrine me as the God. I will be the guardian of peace keeping in Japan.” As a result, Nikko became home of the mausoleums of the Tokugawa Shoguns, which are on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Unlike most Japanese temples and shrines, the buildings here are extremely gaudy and ornate, with multicolored carvings and plenty of gold leaf, and show heavy Chinese influence. Some sense of dignity is restored by a magnificent forest of over 13,000 cedar trees, covering the entire area.

However, for all of the grandeur the shoguns could muster, they’re now over-shadowed in the eyes of many visitors by a trio of small wooden carvings on a stable wall: the famous three wise monkeys.

As with most attractions in Japan there were crowds of people spoiling what would otherwise be a nice shot, therefore I had to use GIMP to mask out everything and everybody I didn’t want in the shot.

I have also uploaded the original full resolution image to my .Mac site.

Metal [ˈmetl] noun, adjective

(of) any of a group of substances, usually shiny, that can conduct heat and electricity and can be hammered into shape, or drawn out in sheets, bars etc
Example: Gold, silver and iron are all metals.

Arabic: فِلِز، فِلِزّي، مَعْدَني
Chinese (Simplified): 金属
Chinese (Traditional): 金屬(的)
Czech: kov; kovový
Danish: metal
Dutch: metaal
Estonian: metall
Finnish: metalli
French: (de, *en) métal
German: das Metall
Greek: μέταλλο
Hungarian: fém
Icelandic: málmur
Indonesian: logam
Italian: metallo; di, *in metallo*
Japanese: 金属 , きんぞく , kinzoku
Korean: 금속
Latvian: metāls
Lithuanian: metalas
Norwegian: metall
Polish: stop
Portuguese (Brazil): metal
Portuguese (Portugal): metal
Romanian: (de, *din) metal
Russian: металл
Slovak: kov; kovový
Slovenian: kovina
Spanish: metal
Swedish: metall
Turkish: metal, maden