Japan Day 6 (Part 1) - Chasing a Noodle
Today, I was feeling well enough to go out and show my ugly mug in public again. So, after lunch (photograph 1) I put on my face mask (photograph 2)... took it off again and we headed out of the door.
We visited Zenkoji, a famous temple where it was said that people should visit at least once in their lives. Today was my day. Photograph 3 shows Sayaka infront of one of the houses surrounding the temple area. Photograph 4 shows a tree with fortune telling paper on it. In the main temple there is an area selling fortune telling paper for about 200-300 yen (about 2 pounds). If it is a good fortune, you take it home and display it proudly on your wall, alongside your cycling proficiency certificate. If you open it and find that it is a bad fortune, you don't take it back, bash the woman around the head with your umbrella and demand a refund. Instead, you tie it one of these trees and leave it there. Photograph 5 shows a view through the main archway towards the temple… with a girl with a rather nice bottom wiggle (who I/we followed closely for quite some time). Photograph 6 shows Mark and me, looking cool, stood to the left of the temple. Photograph 7 is of me ushering smoke towards me whilst standing on a step. The idea of this is that if you let the smoke go over your head, you will gain intelligence. I stood there for about a minute… and felt a bit stupid, if I'm honest. But hey, lets see what happens. At this point, we entered the main temple, where we took our shoes off and walked in. The floor was very cold on our feet. But we walked to the middle and knelt down to say a prayer infront of the statues on the altar - taking two pinches of incense and putting them to our head before adding them on to a small burning pile infront of us and then making a wish (I resisted the temptation to wish for underfloor heating). After this, we headed to a series of steps to the side of the altar. To quote from the board outside the temple (photograph 8), "under the main altar is a tunnel called Okaidan. Touching the "Key to Pure-Land" while passing through the tunnel will bless a strong tie with the main image (Nyorai) and promise to Pure-Land." So, we went down the steps towards the tunnel. Once you get a few steps along the passage it literally goes pitch black. This leaves you to fumble your way along, touching the right hand wall (and the arse of the person infront) whilst searching for the 'key' on the right hand side. We found it, and felt it, and then walked around until we found the steps back up to the light. Having experienced the temple, we headed out of the right door to check out some of the other surrounding buildings, including a war memorial (photo 8), some cows (photo 9) and the bell tower (photos 10 and 11). Mark then took a photograph (photo 12) of the Roko Jizo buddhas. The reason they have bibs is apparently because they saved children. They are "the protectors of six realms." Each Jizo protects one of the six realms: Hell, Hungry Ghosts, Animals, Asura, Humans and Heavenly Beings. After this, we headed back out of the main gate, where they were busy taking down the lanterns (photo 12). That's it for part 1 of today's blog. Part 2 follows on below the photographs (it's worth reading... go on, you know you want to...)