Mt Takao

I went on a hiking tour of Mt Takao Saturday after Thanksgiving. Mt Takao is part of the mountain range that is just to the east of us and is in between us and Ft Fuji. We can often see Fuji peeking over this mountain range. One of the main attractions of this mountain is a Buddhist temple. The monks of this temple are the hardcore type you see in movies climbing the mountain in nothing but a loin cloth as well as sitting under the ice cold waterfalls to test their discipline. We didn't climb up the mountain in our boxers; we took the chairlift. There was still a decent hike from the temple up to the summit however. Plain and simple the summit has a great view. The hike back down was pretty cool (no chairlift on the way down) and we got to see the waterfalls where the monks do their aesthetic exercises.

Mt Takao 2

This man is making udon noodles by hand.







The forests on this mountain have wild monkeys. Here this poor unfortunate monkey does tricks for the crowd.


Fuji-san.
















The "beware of wild monkeys" sign.




A view from the chairlift.

Kamakura

The Kamakura region is little over a half hour south by train from where I'm living right now and is right on the ocean (people were surfing!). Kamakura was the capitol of Japan from 1192 until 1333 and is the nexus of emergence of the samurai, therefore there are dozens of temples, shrines and other sites to see. I went there on a field trip for my Inter-Cultural Relations class. Our final assignment for the week-long class was to plan a trip anywhere in Japan (using trains) and then execute that plan. I went with a couple from my squadron (Leif & Kristina) and their children (Lars-3 & Kara-1.5) and we had a pretty nice time. This area is a major tourist area so there were several school field trips blobing around as well as random packs of tourists such as ourselves. The brightest spot of the trip was lunch. The Kamakura area is actually pretty large so by the time we got to our first checkpoint it was already 11:00. We walked by a noodle shop that had really good looking plastic food in a case outside (in case you've never been in this area before, a good majority of the smaller eating establishments have plastic food in cases outside to represent their menu). We figured it would be good to get lunch before we really started but when we went into the restaurant we discovered they we closed. Disappointed we forged on to see the Great Budda. We figured that we'd find another place along the way that was open, but not only wasn't anything else open, all the other plastic food didn't look that good! So we pressed on, saw the Great Budda and the Hase Kannon Temple and headed back towards the train station. When we went back by the restaurant with the good plastic food it was open so we went in. The people who had turned us away before recognized us and were very happy that we had decided to give them another chance. Needless to say the service was great, all the Japanese ladies in the place had to fawn over the baby (she is a cutie), and the food was well worth the wait.

The Great Budda (Daibutsu)

The Great Budda was built in 1252 and is 37 feet tall. He originally was housed in a large temple that was washed away in a tsunami. The locals rebuilt the temple and that temple was also washed away by a tsunami. Legend has it that at that point the locals realized that Daibutsu wanted to be outside so they never rebuilt the temple. This was in 1495 and according to legend there hasn't been a tsunami there since so I guess it worked. It's understandable since he has a phenomenal view over the ocean. Daibutsu is hollow so you can actually go inside of him which was mildly interesting. My favorite was the Budda's shoes, you know, in case he needs to stretch out at some point.

Hase Kannon Temple

This is the Hasedera or Hase Kannon Temple. It's a very lush with ponds and gardens all around and a great view of the ocean. The temple was originally built in the 8th century. According to legend two statues of the goddess Kannon (Buddhist deity of compassion) were carved out of the same holy log. The smaller of the two statues was taken to a temple in Yamato while the larger one was thrown into the ocean. When the statue washed up onshore 15 years later it was seen as a good omen so the temple was built to house it. In 1342 it was covered in gold leaf. The statue has 11 heads each representing different facets, is 30 feet tall and is the largest wooden statue in Japan. Unfortunatly taking pictures of it isn't allowed becasue it's an impressive sight.

Eddie

We met Eiichi "Eddie" Maiwa on the train to Kamakura. He's from Tokyo but has been living in Maui with his wife and daughter for the past 9 years teaching scuba. He's back in Japan for a few weeks to visit family and friends. He rode about 2/3 of the way with us before his stop and really helped us find the right trains when we had to transfer. If you're ever in Maui and need scuba lessons, check him out.

Busted!!!

Proof that I can't go more than 10 minutes without finding a Tower Records, even in Japan.

Tokyo Redux

Hey the weather was nice for a change so now I have some decent pictures of the Tokyo skyline.
















If you squint you can see Mt Fuji.








Somewhere in the blotch of green is the Imperial Palace.

Meiji-Jingu Shrine

This is one of the main Shinto shrines in Tokyo. It was built in 1920 to enshrine and memorialize Emperor Meiji and his wife Empress Shoken; apparently they were very beloved by the Japanese people. The shrine grounds encompass 175 acres of wooded areas, gardens, ponds, museums, and assorted buildings related to the shrine. It's a popular place to hold weddings and other ceremonies including Shichi-Go-San (described in the next post). While we were there we saw the first part of the Shichi-Go-San ceremony, several wedding processions and a traditional Japanese mini-play. I'm not sure what the play was really about other than it seemed to be a struggle of good vs evil and the two characters on the right seemed to be fighting off the character on the left.

Shichi-go-san (Seven-Five-Three)

Around this time every year it's a Japanese custom for children of the ages 7, 5, & 3 (specifically girls 7 & 3 and boys 5) to get dressed up in their kimonos, visit their local shrine and participate in a good luck ceremony. Many of their mothers and grandmothers and a few fathers were also wearing kimonos which was neat to see. Since Meiji-Jingu is a major shrine in Tokyo it attracts a large amount of Shichi-Go-San participants. There were hundreds of children running around all dressed up, getting their picture taken, etc so there was a lot going on. The ceremony seemed to run at various intervals; there was an initial portion at the entrance of the shrine sanctuary that we could see then each group would head into another part of the shrine for the rest of the ceremony which didn't seem to be public. We were lucky to get to see some of this custom. Besides aren't they cute!

Traditional Japanese Wedding procession

The bride has the large white headdress and the groom is to her right.

The Tale of the 47 samurai (Chu-shin-gura)

The Sengakuji temple is the gravesite of the famous "47 samurai", a group of warriors who avenged their master's death. Long story short in 1701 Feudal Lord of Ako, Asano Takuminokami got involved in a duel with another lord, Kira Kozukenosuke. The duel took place in Edo castle, a place where drawing one's sword was strictly forbidden. Both of the lords should have been punished for their offense however only Asano was ordered to commit seppuku (suicide). Lord Asano's estate was confiscated and family line deposed and disgraced. The retainers of Asano were outraged and after unsuccessfully petitioning for reinstatement of the estate, went into hiding for two years. At that point 47 of the retainers attacked the estate of Lord Kozukenosuke and exacted their revenge. They reported their deed to the head shogun who appreciated their loyalty and honor and therefore restored their Lord's estate. However the shogun couldn't have this kind of thing happening all the time so he ordered the 47 samurai to commit seppuku, which they did February 4th, 1703.

Sengakuji Temple

This is the temple where the 47 Samurai are interred. The sitting sculpture is of a prominent 20th century Zen Buddhist master, Sawaki Kodo Roshi. The standing sculpture is Oishi Kuranosuke, the leader of the 47 Samurai. He holds a scroll listing the names of the other 46.

Graves of the 47 Samurai