A busy weekend, day one: Kegon-ji, re-birth, and the Hina Matsuri
Faced the weekend with a few good options. Go off with a dear co-worker of mine, and Jules, to a nearby temple/shrine, or go snowboarding. As it happens I did both.
I was chatting with my co-worker about weekend plans, and mentioned that I was intereted in snowboarding when another teacher overheard and asked about it. I was in the science staff room in a building facing the persimmon orchards on the north side. I sometimes go there to teach. I hadn't really met this physics teacher before, so thankfully we were introduced and I suddenly found myself being rather sheepishly invited skiing/snowboarding. It was kind of strange. He seemed to be amazed to be offering. And equally amazed when I accepted. So I went from looking forward to a relaxing weekend to mostly looking forward to a very busy weekend, with a full day trip with one co-worker and Julie on Saturday, and a snowboarding excursion starting early Sunday morning.
It was beautiful weather Saturday, thankfully, and it was really good to hit the road with my co-worker again. We had taken one trip previously with him and his wife, but it had been awhile since we'd done anything together. He picked us up at the Circle K across the way and off we went.
We were going to Kegon-ji, the last temple/shrine in a pilgrimage route of thirty-three sites called the Saigoku, in the greater series of the Kannon 100, across Japan. Their festival had been held a couple of weeks earlier, and it was still early for sakura, so it promised to be not too busy a time to visit.
Well, the place was thoroughly breathtaking, and I realized for the first time, I think, that Jules and I are almost insatiable temple-goers. We just don't get tired of them.
Seeing a map of the place, we realized for the first time why my co-worker had planned the entire day for this activity. It was huge. The site dates back over 1200 years, and evidence abounded of past pilgrimages, from posts along the way stating how much had been donated to the site (generally hyaku-yen -- $1) at the time, to papers covering the gate with the names of people who had visited, and at some of the shrines about the site framed photos of some of the more recent groups to attend.
I think I enjoyed this site more than many I had seen in Kyoto. Kegon-ji was surrounded by towering cedar trees, and there was no sound but the wind blowing and occasional temple bells. On the walk up I had the distinct impression that my mom would like the place immensely.
There were a few surprises here, too. A large-ish shrine covered in paper cranes that we were told was the shrine for lost infants and fetuses. But upon closer inspection, it turned out that it was also a place of thanks for healthy children, so that brought the mood up a little.
We also ventured beneath the hondo (main hall of the temple in which the main image -- the honzon -- is enshrined) in a symbolic re-birth, moving carefully through a corridor apparently devoid of all light. Well, there was the occasional crack, but indeed these were shockingly brilliant. The whole experience was a bit disorienting. The path curved and did not stay level. At the end I was convinced that we had emerged out the other side, intead of arriving where we in fact were: the front of the main temple. Inanely I wondered how the man permitting admission had made it to the back of the temple, and what are my shoes doing here, and oh I see...
After this we had lunch at a fantastic unagi (eel) place. We arrived a bit late for lunch but they graciously took us in and served us a wonderful meal of unagi-don -- eel on rice -- with japanese pickles, fresh fruit, a kind of consomme (rather than miso) that held something that looked like a mushroom but turned out to be an internal organ of the eel (possibly the heart), and a delicious plum wine.
They also had a beautiful looking sashimi setup that we didn't have the chance to sample this time around.
Just look at that block of tuna. Those are two huge crabs from Hokkaido on the top.
Then we were off to a kawaramachi ya -- a paper and paper doll house. It turns out that Saturday was the Hina Matsuri -- the day of the paper doll festival in Gifu. So the place was quite busy. It's not really my kind of thing, but it was interesting, and some of the displays were quite impressive.
A tiring day but enjoyable. Then resting up for the day of snowboarding ahead.
You can access the entire Flickr run from the link at the top right.
I was chatting with my co-worker about weekend plans, and mentioned that I was intereted in snowboarding when another teacher overheard and asked about it. I was in the science staff room in a building facing the persimmon orchards on the north side. I sometimes go there to teach. I hadn't really met this physics teacher before, so thankfully we were introduced and I suddenly found myself being rather sheepishly invited skiing/snowboarding. It was kind of strange. He seemed to be amazed to be offering. And equally amazed when I accepted. So I went from looking forward to a relaxing weekend to mostly looking forward to a very busy weekend, with a full day trip with one co-worker and Julie on Saturday, and a snowboarding excursion starting early Sunday morning.
It was beautiful weather Saturday, thankfully, and it was really good to hit the road with my co-worker again. We had taken one trip previously with him and his wife, but it had been awhile since we'd done anything together. He picked us up at the Circle K across the way and off we went.
We were going to Kegon-ji, the last temple/shrine in a pilgrimage route of thirty-three sites called the Saigoku, in the greater series of the Kannon 100, across Japan. Their festival had been held a couple of weeks earlier, and it was still early for sakura, so it promised to be not too busy a time to visit.
Well, the place was thoroughly breathtaking, and I realized for the first time, I think, that Jules and I are almost insatiable temple-goers. We just don't get tired of them.
Seeing a map of the place, we realized for the first time why my co-worker had planned the entire day for this activity. It was huge. The site dates back over 1200 years, and evidence abounded of past pilgrimages, from posts along the way stating how much had been donated to the site (generally hyaku-yen -- $1) at the time, to papers covering the gate with the names of people who had visited, and at some of the shrines about the site framed photos of some of the more recent groups to attend.
I think I enjoyed this site more than many I had seen in Kyoto. Kegon-ji was surrounded by towering cedar trees, and there was no sound but the wind blowing and occasional temple bells. On the walk up I had the distinct impression that my mom would like the place immensely.
There were a few surprises here, too. A large-ish shrine covered in paper cranes that we were told was the shrine for lost infants and fetuses. But upon closer inspection, it turned out that it was also a place of thanks for healthy children, so that brought the mood up a little.
We also ventured beneath the hondo (main hall of the temple in which the main image -- the honzon -- is enshrined) in a symbolic re-birth, moving carefully through a corridor apparently devoid of all light. Well, there was the occasional crack, but indeed these were shockingly brilliant. The whole experience was a bit disorienting. The path curved and did not stay level. At the end I was convinced that we had emerged out the other side, intead of arriving where we in fact were: the front of the main temple. Inanely I wondered how the man permitting admission had made it to the back of the temple, and what are my shoes doing here, and oh I see...
After this we had lunch at a fantastic unagi (eel) place. We arrived a bit late for lunch but they graciously took us in and served us a wonderful meal of unagi-don -- eel on rice -- with japanese pickles, fresh fruit, a kind of consomme (rather than miso) that held something that looked like a mushroom but turned out to be an internal organ of the eel (possibly the heart), and a delicious plum wine.
They also had a beautiful looking sashimi setup that we didn't have the chance to sample this time around.
Just look at that block of tuna. Those are two huge crabs from Hokkaido on the top.
Then we were off to a kawaramachi ya -- a paper and paper doll house. It turns out that Saturday was the Hina Matsuri -- the day of the paper doll festival in Gifu. So the place was quite busy. It's not really my kind of thing, but it was interesting, and some of the displays were quite impressive.
A tiring day but enjoyable. Then resting up for the day of snowboarding ahead.
You can access the entire Flickr run from the link at the top right.
posted by Freemount at 6:05 a.m.
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