April comes to Nikko with floats. Along the cedar avenue that leads to Toshogu — one of Japan's most ornate shrines, a place that makes excess look like devotion — decorated floats move slowly through the spring air. The thousand-samurai procession on the 17th is the formal climax. But it is the quieter moments that stay: lantern light on lacquered wood, the smell of cedar, the mountains still holding snow.