Hakone is a resort area for Japan with lots of little towns nestled in the hills in the around Hakone. When we got there, Donald, Dennis and I went on a tour of the temples and shrines in the local area. Unfortunately, Hakone has very small streets, no sidewalks, and lots of traffic. So our walking tour wasn’t relaxing because I was always worried about on-coming traffic and getting hit by a truck or car!
We saw Shirayama Shrine – a little, dilapidated, old shrine. Then Soun-ji Temple. This temple had an interesting tree that was supported by 3 stands because it was growing horizontally. There were also headstones with red bibs on them. I still need to find out what the significance of the red bibs is. Anyone else know?
We continued our walk to Shogen-Ji Temple which looked like it was in use since we couldn’t go in. We walked on an old stone road, Old Tokaido Road, used originally by people traveling from Kyoto to Tokyo a few eons ago.
The only way we found the next temple was by following the monk who was dropped off by a taxi and going home! It was down some steep stairs on the hillside. It is Hakone Karron – sort of a cross between a temple and a shrine. And it was probably the most interesting thing we visited on our walking tour. The main room was open and you could look in at the altar from the doorway. There were these floor-to-ceiling objects in the shape of a Christmas tree but they were filled with candles and their holders all lit up. They gave off a gold effect for the altar. There was incense burning and a happy-looking Buddha at the door! We all agreed that it would be very cool to spend a day in a temple practicing Buddhism with the monks. Maybe next trip (??) we can arrange for that.
I was very aware today how hard it is to navigate around Japan without speaking or reading the language. To read the map for the walking tour, we literally were matching Japanese characters on the map to those on signs to make sure we were at the correct spots. And in the hotel, when guys came to make up the bedding, they were asking questions that we couldn’t understand or pantomime a response to, so we had to go find Chie. We really relied on her to be our translator.
Last stop on the walking tour was the Tamadare Waterfall. Actually it was two waterfalls with a shrine between them. …Very Hawaii-looking with streams of water falling and trickling down a rock hillside into a pond. And the shrine was about 75 steps up the hillside so I was huffing and puffing by the time I got to the top to see it. Buddhists and Shintoists must be (or were in ancient times) in really good physical shape with all these stairs!
We walked back to the hotel for a much deserved hot springs soak!
2 comments:
Gee Kathleen, entire day spending at a Japanese temple feeling your feet fall asleep. Not for me....
The red bibs..if memory serves, represent protection and expelling demons of sickness and other evil things. If I remembered correctly from my grandmother, red is the color most fear by demons who bring sickness, death and other evil stuff to the world. So all the little deities are armed with that color. In your travels, you have seen the color red in many places in and around shrines and temples.
I remembered that leaning tree at Soun-ji Temple...fell off and hurt my head once when playing on it. That should give Dennis some satisfaction that there's something wrong with me.
Old Tokaido Road was the most important road during the Tokugawa period. Almost anyone who was anyone in Japan have one time or another, set their feet along that road.
They don't sell detail maps at the Sanno Hotel??
One more note...with all the climbing you did, you should have Dennis take you to the top of Diamond Head next time in Hawaii.
In reference to my remarks above, I also read that red is a some sort of a holy color in Japan.
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