teamEggers

Jizo, the Baby-Lovin Buddhas.

The Turtle Inn suggested we take a walk up the river, to a path lined with stone Buddhas. I never tire of these things – it was really pretty.

They weren’t exactly Buddhas, as I’m sure the woman at the front desk knew, but easier to explain that way. These particular statues looked a lot like the Bodhisattva “Kasa Jizo”, and some internet research afterward told me I was right!

In some areas, Jizo’s referenced as a transient spirit – like a gondolier in the river of the afterworld, shuttling the souls of children to the the next realm. You’ll often see these statues in shrines dedicated to unborn children – the aborted, miscarried, and early to death. Communities of women will knit red bibs and hats for them at the new year, and allow them to fade and wear as the year goes on. Those little white specs are snow. It was cold.

For the same reasons that Jizo is believed to guide the spirits of children, it’s also thought to be a guide to travelers! Where do you think the money that’s collected at these public statues goes?

While there’s lots of takes on this story, the basic idea’s the same:

The story of Kasa Jizo is about a grandfather and grandmother. It is New Year’s Eve. A weaver, the grandfather goes to town to sell his hats to earn money to buy food for the holiday. But as he sits by the roadside, no one buys his hats. Finally he gives up and heads for home. It is snowing. Seeing six stone jizo, hatless and cold, he gives each a hat. When he returns home and explains, the grandmother says, You have done a good thing. We’ll just have ochazuke (rice soup) tonight. At dawn they hear sounds. The jizo have come to return the favor. New Year’s gifts are piled up by their door.

This is moss. I adore moss. It’s the ideal ground-cover.

…and this is jon and I, bundled up against the snow, wishing for some warmer weather. I don’t look very happy, eh? Can I go back to springtime now?

I’m such a bundle of joy. Next time you see jon, pat him on the head for being such a saint and dealing with grumpy michelle.

Stay tuned. Later today we’ll meet back up with Will & Dana and check out all the templey goodness that Nikko has to offer!

Kyoto [Part 5]

We arrive at the Nijō Castle – one of the few castles built for living in and not strictly as a military stronghold. Built in the 1600s, this castle is a remnant of a time long gone. We were lucky – for $5, you can go in and actually walk around the castle and see it first hand.

Even though it was reaaaaallly sunny, it was still pretty cold. I kept wishing I brought a scarf along.

Jon thought the castle was one of the highlights of the weekend. Maybe when he comes home he’ll tell me why and I can relay that to you. He likes castles, you know? (He also seems very opposed to posting in the blog himself. Leave a comment, for chrissake lumpy-jon! Tell us about your castle-love!!)

All the japanese girls stand right next to the low-hanging blossom and flash a peace-sign. So you know. Peer pressure got to me.

Are you guys getting as sick of my winter-coat as I am? Sheesh. Let’s have some pictures where michelle’s NOT cloaked-in-darkness. Come on, spring. Do your job!

How many pictures of cherry blossoms do you need? Well that depends. I think if it were up to jon, every photo would be cherry blossoms – with a side of something else. He took a LOT of pictures of them.

What would be more appropriate to follow a visit to castle with than a trip to a temple! This was the Golden Temple that I mentioned yesterday. Unlike the Silver Temple, i think you can figure out how it got its name.

Pretty, pretty.

Jon and I were noticing how all of our pictures-of-us look the same. We could have taken a picture of us in front of a white background and then just popped in pictures of places we went, and you probably wouldn’t know the difference. We’ll try harder next time. But for now….

Sometimes when I’m frustrated and can’t communicate, I slip into spanish. It’s weird. It’s not like I can actually speak spanish anymore, but I unconsciously pepper my phrases with the words, like they will help me speak to the japanese. “Porque no me entiendas?“, I say. “Why don’t you understand me!?” I’m sure when we get to puerto rico I’ll start mumbling in Japanese.  I’m hopeless.

Next we walked over to the zen gardens. Buddhists Monks + Zen Gardens + Local-Specialty Restaurant = happy michelle. They had moss here. I love moss.

The zen garden were a bit disappointing. You’re supposed to be inspired to think deep thoughts while staring into the gardens. I must have become a very shallow person since I last checked in. “Nice rocks”, lumpy-jon said. At least I’m not alone in my lack of philosophic revelations.

Okay one more thing and then we’ll take a break for a bit. This next part was cool.

Attached to the complex, there was a restaurant. Buddhists are traditionally vegetarian. The Japanese eat a lot of 1-pot stews. So what would Japanese Buddhists eat, then? Say it with me. Tofu stew! (they call it shōjin-ryōri) It’s served with cabbage and a lot of condiments. Stop making a face at tofu. I can see you. It was good.

And we ate on the floor at little tables like this.

Many japanese meals end with Tsukemono, or the Japanese pickle. They pickle everything. Not dill-style like American pickles. Just… preserved by pickling. You know.

Okay. I have just a little bit more for you. See you in Part 6!

Going to Chiba

chibachibachiba! We’re like… totally going on an adventure. omg.

The adventure starts on a train south to a little ferry town. The ferry, while it looks like the Seattle-Bremerton ferry, is certainly classier than our ferry.

That is, until you take into account our breakfast of local beers and curry buns. I figure… if they sell beer everywhere, it’s a shame to not drink it. We knew there was something potentially wrong with public drinking at 11am when a pair of toothless bums stopped to cheers us.

Guest starring on today’s adventure is Ross. Ross, meet teamEggers. teamEggers, this is Ross. Ross works with jon and is in town for a week. He’s a cool guy and we enjoyed hanging out with him.

And a lighthouse for jon’s mom!

Okay. So we finally get off the ferry and start the walk around the bay and to the gondola that will take us up the mountain. Keep in mind that this is a fishing village. One the road, we see a fresh-fish stand. Really, really fresh. Some of the fish were still swimming in buckets.

And of course, a lot of temples / shrines.

Some Buddhas

I think this post may just be a lot of photos, with small bits of commentary mixed in. I don’t have a lot to say, but it was an awesome experience.

Carved into the mountainside is one of the world’s largest stone Buddhas, and sprinkled throughout the surrounding the trails were some 1500 buddha and arhatt statues. To get there (described more in the post above) we took a gondola up to the top of the mountain.

We crammed in a LOT of people. Somehow I was squished into the photo-op corner. What a view!

I hate waiting for the climax of events, so I’m going to go ahead and show you the big one now.

Next to this giant buddha there was this small area that people were praying and leaving little offerings. The crazy thing was that no where else in Japan have I seen cherry trees blossom.

Goddess of Mercy. I think she was 30 meters tall

Oooookay. So. there was this hill. with “stairs”. So you know, i stumbled up them, nearly fell down them.

THEN. then I found out what i was climbing up on. And how precarious it looked.

But you know. The views were worth the extra climb.

But speaking of the climb… there was a LOT of climbing. A lot of stairs.

A lot of arhats. (An arhat is the Buddhist who has attained enlightenment and has ended the cycle of reincarnation.)

Chiba

What a day. We must have climbed a good 30 flights of stairs today. Jon was so exhausted, he went to bed before 8pm. He didn’t even say goodnight – When I realized that I was talking to myself, I peeked in the bedroom and there he was – face down with his street clothes on.

During the day, we met up with Ross, a friend and coworker of jon’s who is in town for the week, and spent a day in the Chiba prefecture looking at stone buddhas. I have about 100 photos to sift through, but i’ll definitely be posting a bunch in the morning.

Below is one of my favourites. The capitalist in me just loves this:

Well, it turns out that I have a 6am meeting tomorrow so I should probably take jon’s lead. I hope you’re all having a great weekend. We miss you.