Iinoyagu Shrine and Ryotanji Pt.2

Picking up where I left off (warning: lotsa pictures - text is pink in honor of the sakura. I hope it's not too hard to read.  If it is, just highlight it.):


We progressed into the Ryotanji grounds from the graveyard (though I guess that's the grounds too, so maybe more like the Ryotanji garden?).

And proceeded to to make our way around, exploring all the paths, admiring the flowers, and taking commemorative pictures.

Bell

Exploring the temple grounds

The main building

Sakura (cherry blossoms)

Silly tourists.

After we had explored as much as possible outside, Nicola, Steven, Joel, and I went in to look around the inside of the temple.

A veteran of many Buddhist temple visits, Josh opted to stay outside with the huggy tree.

There was no one at the reception area, but we could see someone inside, so I tried calling in to get their attention.  An old man came out and asked if there was no one there, and if so, to ring the bell.  Well, just as I went to do that, the person came.  We paid, got a little pamphlet in English (which really doesn't say much at all) and went in to the entryway.  I should have taken a picture of it for those of you who haven't been to a place like that, but you can't wear your shoes inside the temple (because it's old, shoes are dirty and noisy, etc.) so there are shoe boxes and you leave your shoes there and proceed in socks (or whatever you're wearing.  Some places offer slippers, but usually not).


The man who asked us if no one was at reception ended up giving us a tour!  I don't think it's something he normally does.  I did my utmost to translate for the other three, but a bunch of it I didn't understand at all, and some of it, I think I miss-translated.  //orz


He led us past the kitchen (on the left) and into the main area of the temple, where there are several statues of Buddha.  The first, is over 330 years old (if I translated correctly).  He is sitting in a zen position with his hands folded in his lap and thumbs allllmost touching (not quite) and his gaze slightly in front of him (we had to do this at the end of practices when I did kendo at school).

Zen Buddha

He then told us about the floor we were standing on.  Ryotanji has Nightingale floors.  <3 <3 <3  Nightingale floors are engineered to make little creaking noises (which allegedly sound like a nightingale) when someone walks on them.  This is to alert if there are intruders (they are also found at places like Nijo Castle in Kyoto).  They're a tiny bit annoying, but 1000% rad.  


We moved to the middle area, where there were tons of flowers and a small statue of Buddha in a basin of 'sweet water' (not sure if that meant something in particular).  One hand was pointing up 'to heaven' and the other 'to the earth.'  We took turns pouring a small ladle of the water over the statue.  I guess this is how you with Buddha happy birthday?  XD  I don't really get it, but April 8th is Buddha's birthday, and it's the Flower Festival to celebrate it.  (He then made a point to say 'Christ's birthday is December 24th, right?  In the winter.  Buddha's birthday is in the spring with all the flowers, so it's the flower festival!')

Middle room with Birthday Buddha beyond the flowers.

Steven wishing Buddha a happy birthday.

View view - as was pointed out to us - from the center room is the most beautiful view of the front garden.  I didn't get a great picture of it, but it really is much prettier from the building than from the outer garden.

In the third part of the main building, there is yet another Buddha.  I forget the significance of this one.  :I  (So many to remember!)  But what's neat about it, is that if you look at it head-on, he looks serious, but if you look at him from an angle, he looks like he's smiling slightly.  And I think he said one was over 700 years old.

Smiling Buddha

Back out in the hallway, we were shown the carved dragon in the hallway.  This piece was made by the same person who made the floors (I read that in the pamphlet just now).  Even though the name of the temple is read 'RYO-TAN-JI,' the first character in it is dragon ('RYU').  So... here's Ryotanji's dragon.

It wasn't very large - maybe three or four feet in length, and you can see here it's displayed diagonally across the doorway.

The inner courtyard at the temple.

The upper level of this building looks like the silver pavilion in Kyoto.  "Only the second level." (I'll take his word on that.  I visited the Silver Pavilion two years ago and it was undergoing some restoration at the time, so I didn't get the best view... not that it's as crazy impressive as the Gold Pavilion anyway)

So we walked down the hallway and entered the red building.  In it, we had yet another Buddha (I don't remember the purpose of that one either), and a palanquin which I think he said belonged to Ii Naomasa, who was an important member of the Ii family, the patrons of Ryotanji for centuries.  He built Hikone Castle and did some other stuff.  Sengoku-jidai.  Rock on.  There was something else in the room which he talked about, but I didn't take a picture of it and I can't remember what it was.  >.<  (According to my pamphlet, it's probably that the building was erected in 17-2 to enshrine the priest Kaisan... so it was probably a statue or something of him)

Palanquin.  Off to the side is a Daruma, which hasn't been used yet, so I don't know why it was sitting here.

We walked down another hallway to another small building where there was a list of the names of all the heads of the Ii family dating alll the way back.  The three most important heads of the family have statues in the interior of that part of the building.

Ii lords.  The one all the way on the left was Ii Naomasa.  I don't remember the others, just that they were older than him.

Half-way down the stairs to the hallway again, we were told is the prettiest view of the back garden.  You can see the curve of the roof and you can see the garden which was designed by a master.  I really was a lot better than my picture.  It just doesn't do it justice.  D:  The main building was reconstructed in 1670 after being burned down in 1572.

I'm always impressed at the craftsmanship of of people hundreds of years ago.  Where has all that art gone?  Buildings today are either boring or weird from trying too hard!

We breezed through a really cool room on our way to the garden.

This room was really interesting and colorful, but I guess there wasn't much of interest for us, as far as our guide was concerned.

The back zen garden is apparently famous.  If you see a picture of Ryotanji, it will most likely be of the back garden.  It's very carefully laid out with special shapes and significance.  The pond is shaped like a dragon (according to our guide, but like the character for 'heart' according to the pamphlet).  The largest mound in the middle symbolizes Buddha and aligns with the Buddha statue inside.  There are large stones on either side which symbolize the temple guards (the slightly scary statues you see at the gates of any given temple) and they align with the ones in the outer gate (which I didn't include a picture of).  Some of the large stones in the front right (as you look) are shaped like a turtle.  There is a flat stone on the edge of the pond where one can sit and pray or meditate.  The grass is so immaculately maintained, it was hard to tell if it was real, but I'm sure it is.  Our guide told us all this, then told us to relax and enjoy the garden.  He left, and a couple of minutes later, a recording about the garden came on.  I didn't understand a word of it.  >.<

Here you can see the large mound in the middle (Buddha) and the flat stone in front of the water.  You can kind of see the koi in the pond too.  Even with such a pretty garden in front of him, all Joel could talk about was the silly fish!

The rock formation which looks like a turtle. The triangualr stone in the lower right is the head, and the ones on either side are the front flippers.  the whole hill is the shell.

After the recording was over, we made our way to the giftshop area where we found our guide again and asked him for a picture with us.  He said it was embarrassing and acted shy for just a second, then was giving orders.  XD  He got the lady who was standing in the giftshop area to come and take the picture, and he orchestrated it so that she was taking the picture from inside the room and we were sitting so you could see the garden behind us.  Maybe he wasn't so embarrassed after all!  What a ham!  <3

I wish I had asked his name, but there wasn't a good time.  :I  I don't know if he is a priest/monk (whatever the title is) or a volunteer or anything.  But it was incredibly sweet of him to give us a tour!

Back in the garden, we met up with Josh and made our way out.

This area grows lots of oranges!  The sakura and oranges looked nifty together, so I took a picture.  :>

And a close-up of some of the very white sakura on the way out of the temple.

We made our way back to the bus stop and hopped on the bus back to Hamamatsu.  As the man at the tourism center suggested, we got off at the castle to see the cherry blossoms there.

It was only a difference of a few days, but the sakura were in full bloom, as opposed to a few days ago when they were just starting to blossom.

It was getting dark, so we went straight to the castle, stopping for a few pictures along the way, when opportunities presented themselves.

Blurry picture by Nicola.

Steven wanted an Abbey Road-esque picture, but this is as good as I got.

I took a picture like this which is the background on my phone now.  ^_^v

A nice person whose area we were encroaching on for our pictures took one for us (while Steven was in the castle).

It was getting dark quickly and the lanterns were lit for people who came to enjoy the sakura in the evening: 'yozakura'.

Office hanami "flower viewing" party.

On our way back from the castle, I got a call from Aaron about my car trouble the other day (I had e-mailed him).  I told him I had the car sorted out, but was confused about a text I got from my IC earlier in the day which sounded like a break-up text.  We happened to be walking past the office, so he told me to come up. Nicola came up with me and the others went home. 


We talked it over and Aaron explained things - really the IC is very limited in what they're supposed to do/ paid to do.  SO my idea that this was supposed to be a helpful person was totally wrong. T_T#  It's not at all like when I volunteered as a language partner, but also helped with various things.  Then we just chatted with Aaron about things.  The head of the branch (who is Japanese) brought in sweets for us.  O_o  We greeted him formally for the first time.  It was awkward, but the snack was yummy.  ^o^/  After a while, Nicola and I left.  We got some cheap Italian (which always has a uniquely Japanese taste) and headed back to the station, where we split.


I came home, blogged some, and went to bed.


I'm SO FAR BEHIND on my blog!  D:  This one is already really long and it's getting late, so I don't want to continue it from here, but I'm getting a back-log (and it takes a long time to make an entry with all the pictures and everything)!  Two days ago, I went for a meet-and-greet with my schools and the Board of Education.  Yesterday, Nicola and I went to Okazaki and Nagoya.  So much to talk about!  Tomorrow, I'm going to Hamamatsu for the Princess Road Procession/Festival.  It should be cool.  I'm practicing my bento (packed lunch) skillz for school, so I made a bento to take tomorrow.  I've got a picture I'll post when I blog about tomorrow.  Sunday, the son of my host parents is getting married, so I'm invited to that.  Monday, I start in at school!!  So much is going on!!  D:  I'll try to get back on top of things!