Just a few more shots of the temple. As you can see, it's built on stilts jutting out over the water, which is quite impressive. In low tide, the temples stilts are all exposed and it sits in a huge mud flat. Not so impressive. Most of the temple is closed, but you can walk around the walkways at the edge of the temple, and clamber up back to the pagoda as well. If you've got time, an overnight stay in one of the traditional ryokan is highly recommended by the guidebooks, although we didn't have time. And I would recommend against it if you're pregnant or not feeling very good, or you may have a bunch of pissed off locals on your hands.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Just a few more shots of the temple. As you can see, it's built on stilts jutting out over the water, which is quite impressive. In low tide, the temples stilts are all exposed and it sits in a huge mud flat. Not so impressive. Most of the temple is closed, but you can walk around the walkways at the edge of the temple, and clamber up back to the pagoda as well. If you've got time, an overnight stay in one of the traditional ryokan is highly recommended by the guidebooks, although we didn't have time. And I would recommend against it if you're pregnant or not feeling very good, or you may have a bunch of pissed off locals on your hands.
24. Miyajima
After lunch, took a ferry from Hiroshima to the vacation island of Miyajima, only to be greeted by the killer deer from Nara, only this time, they travel in packs! If you run your eyes quickly over the two pictures, it vaguely resembles the running of the bulls in Pamplona, no?
Miyajima is a sacred island, and one of those odd Shinto rules dictates that nobody can be born or die on the island, so they maintain an emergency evacuation service for those people rude enough to try to do either of those things on the island. It's quite beautiful as well, but most people (including us) don't see much of the mountainous island. Instead, it's a straight shot from the ferry terminal down the village main street to their famous temple, Itsukushima Jinja.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Across the river from the A Bomb Dome lies the Peace Park,which contains a number of poignant memorials. The photo at bottom shows the memorial museum, not much to look at from the outside, but a very powerful series of exhibits, movies, photos etc. about the day Hiroshima disappeared. Also in the park is a memorial to the 75,000 people who died that day and the 200,000 who died later from the radiation. Top left is the memorial to the most famous victim, Sadako, who was 2 years old when the bomb fell. She survived but got leukemia when she was ten. According to Japanese legend, if you make 1,000 paper cranes you'll get a wish granted. Unfortunately she died before completing them all, so her friends finished them and she was buried with the cranes. The paper crane has become a symbol of peace, and students all over Japan and overseas send millions of cranes to Hiroshima every year, which are displayed in the park. The park also has a peace flame that will burn until the last nuclear weapon is gone. Moving on to happier subjects...
23. Hiroshima
22. Uji
Stubbornly I'm sticking with the timeline I laid out for the day, i.e. Kyoto temple, then I guess go to hotel and change clothes, train to Nara for a long day of hiking and temples. It gets a bit more complicated, because I'm sure that on the way back to Kyoto we stopped at the small town of Uji, pictured here. This is Byodo-in, built in the 10th century as a home for one of the Fujiwara clan. As usual, it was converted into a Buddhist temple after his death. It's incredibly elaborate for a Japanese building, which generally lean heavily toward minimalism. Unfortunately, it was also under renovation, so it was pretty much a big construction site when we were there, so I'm impressed we were able to cover up most of the ugliness in these photos.
The temple itself has both the stone lanterns and these beautiful hanging lanterns that gave me all sorts of interior decorating ideas. As I mentioned before, this is a Shinto shrine, whereas most other temples in Nara are Buddhist, which became hugely popular in Japan while Nara was capital. I'm a big fan of Buddhism, so I think it's natural that it should win such a big following, but it must be said that Shinto is a pretty easy religion to beat. First, they worship the emperor, and I'm not going there again. Second, they had that stupid rule about destroying capitals and moving every time the emperor died, which I'm sure thrilled the people forced to abandon their homes and livelihoods and start building from scratch over and over. Third, they have another awful rule that all their temples need to be destroyed and completely rebuilt every 20 years. This temple has been completely rebuilt over 50 times, although mercifully they stopped here in 1893. Putting aside the huge expense wasted constantly rebuilding and destroying things, it also is a bit of a killjoy for tourists. You'll go to a beautifully situated temple, and learn all these special things about it, and then learn it was last rebuilt in the 1980's or something. I think Shinto was founded by the carpenters' union.
21. Nara
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Somchai is certainly getting his money's worth out of this temple, moving from risking his life drinking unknown fluids, to tempting death by pecking. As you can see by the top left picture, it looks a bit touch and go there for a while, but, as in the drinking incident, he survives.