What would a Mcgregor holiday be without dad taking the young children for a 'morning walk', before the others get up. There's no one left to take, and I had suggested that Hamish might enjoy a sleep in before our days camping. So I looked up another couple of temples from two branches of Zen Buddhism, and headed off.
They hadn't come up in my research but boy did they deliver. Close to town, massive in size and beautifully ornate inside.
Both had portraits of former leaders on the side of the main statue, presumably to inspire devotion to finding enlightenment. Thankfully our church doesn't do that!
Three particular highlights:
1. This diorama showing the tragic death of 27 people from a congregation in 1883 when the massive tree they were hauling for the rebuilding of the temple fell down.
2. Because the man-made ropes of the time weren't up to the task of hauling the huge logs, thousands of women across Japan donated their hair to make ones that were. Here's one that's 68m long and weighs 375 kg.
3. Just as I was about to leave the main hall of the first temple, I noticed a group of priests and believers walking in. Having loved talking with a Russian-born monk at an orthodox monastery outside Bethlehem about their faith, I had spent many hours trying to find a Shubuko (temple lodging) so we could attend the early morning service and talk to a monk in English afterwards.
No English speaking monk here to talk with afterwards, but I did get to sit in on the service. The 10 priests sat in the inner sanctum and chanted, whilst the 20 or so worshippers sat in the much larger outer area, with one or two if them quietly joining in. (The other temple had prayer books to pick up on the way in, but here they weren't giving this option). Of course I couldn't understand a word of it, and couldn't take photos, but it was a moving experience nonetheless.
4. This repository was built to house the complete collection of Buddhist teachings in a special revolving octagonal bookcase. What a joy to have our complete scriptures in a freely available book (or an app).
A great start to the morning and I was sorry that Hamish missed it.
After another delicious Japanese breakfast we had our final activity in Kyoto, chosen by Hamish.
The Samurai Museum and Experience.
Lots of armour, swords and guns.
An interesting titbit:
We had wondered how Japan came to drive on the left, since they missed out on the glories of the British Empire. Apparently samurai would always store their swords on their left (so they could draw them out quickly to kill you with their right hand), so they would always walk on the left so as not to bump swords with another samurai. Somehow this translated into road rules, but missed producing a uniform side to walk on the stairs at train stations. We enjoyed the ninja star throwing competition, and guess who won?
All that sumo training must have paid off!
Sadly we had to skip the dressing up because we had a plane to catch, or rather a train to the airport, which would get us there just in time. Turns out arriving 10 minutes before the Haruka express train leaves is not really enough time to find the right ticket machine, buy the ticket and get all the way to platform 30. But thanks to the JR worker's expertise and encouragement to 'hurry, hurry', we raced to platform 30 and hopped on just in time.
A relaxing 80 minute trip including going through Osaka (this in depth investigation of the city confirmed our decision not to go here) and we arrived at Kansai International Airport - a man-made island with the longest terminal in the world, and even then we caught a shuttle bus to terminal 2. Surprisingly the check in process was convoluted and the boarding sign consisted of flip down sheets with your destination and 'not ready' or 'now boarding.' A pleasant flight with views of beaches and snow-capped mountains on the way to Hokkaido.
Hokkaido - long time trading area but then a Japanese colony from the late 19th century when they were afraid of the threat of Russian invasion from the north. Hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised samurais were encouraged to move here to settle and exploit the natural resources of the island. Now the capital city of Sapporo is Japan's fifth largest city, which is saying something, and huge numbers of international tourists come to ski each year.
We picked up our very nice Toyota corolla station-wagon (Hamish was pleased because we don't have these in Australia) and went to the local DCM store to search for the right gas cylinder for our camping stove. To our delight they had just the thing. Then to the supermarket to pick up supplies. Finding the right things here was trickier. What's difficult to get for your camping trip? Breakfast, since a Japanese buffet would be hard to prepare. Also what do Japanese people eat for lunch when they're not eating out or cooking on a stove? No idea, so we bought things to cook on our camping stove. What is easy to buy for your camping trip in Japan? Alcohol from the four aisles in the supermarket.
It was now way past the time for checking in at the campsite and dark for setting up. We finally arrived at the gate of the campsite which was locked. We toyed with one of Hamish's favourite activities - sleeping in the back of the car - but decided it would be a little cramped. We gathered the essentials and headed for the campground. Eventually we had set up and we sat down in front of our tents to admire the view and experiment with night time photography.
Another day of extraordinary Japanese contrasts.
Feeling sad that the first half of our adventure has come to an end. But excited that the second half has only just begun.
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