I'm back again this week with pictures from my latest adventure in Yamanashi. I recently spent the day out walking around town with a friend and we visited several places in an attempt at geocaching. For those of you who may not know, geocaching is sort of like a modern day version of treasure hunting. Basically, someone makes a cache (some kind of container with a journal or some form of writing pad so that people that find it can document their visit) and hides it somewhere, they then go online and register this location. That's where the fun begins, geocaches range from very easy to locate to very challenging and can be found on all levels of terrain, requiring various experience/physical ability to retrieve. This trip, however, we kept it simple. I found that there are numerous low level caches around my campus, some in places I had already been wanting to visit. So we went out to Sakaorimiya shrine, just a short walk from campus.
Entrance to Sakaorimiya shrine (the maintenance crew was doing some landscaping)
The shrine's main building.
Some signs around the shrine complex.
We were able to find the location of the cache, but it seemed to have been removed. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find much about the history of this little shrine, but I did learn a bit about shrine etiquette here. Before going up the steps to a main shrine building, you are often required to rinse your hands at the little sink stations on site. there is a little pan provided from which you catch the water from the spout, then you pour it over one hand at a time before rubbing them together and proceeding to the shrine. This is to ensure that you are clean before going to the shrine (where you may be allowed to ring a bell after saying a prayer/making a wish.
Our next destination was Zenkoji temple, but on the way we found a small roadside shrine that I thought was lovely:
Roadside shrine with bell, incense and all.
The Zenkoji temple in Yamanashi is actually one of four total Zenkoji temples, the original one is a Buddhist temple located in Nagano. The replicas were built for fear that the original would be burned down during the mid 15th - 17th century.
Entrance gate of Zenkoji temple in Yamanashi.
Temple compound.
Beautiful koi pond with the Buddha off in the distance.
A better image of the massive Buddha sculpture.
Stone engraving outside of Zenkoji temple.
Wooden dragons protecting the entrance to the temple.
Burial monument in the afternoon sun.
Panoramic view of some of the burial monuments behind the temple.
A final picture of the temple before as we left the compound.
Japan really has such a rich history and it was an incredible experience to be standing in front of this enormous temple. No picture can really do justice to the size of these buildings and sculptures, and as I've been studying their histories in my art history class, I felt even more impressed getting to see one up close and personal. If you ever get the chance to visit Japan, make certain that you find time to go visit at least a few of these kinds of shrines and temples.
Well, that's all I have for this week, next week I'll be writing about my experience at Shosenkyo gorge, and adventure that I will be embarking on later this weekend. I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse at traditional Japanese architecture here in Yamanashi.
Until next week,
Julia.
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