the tall blond guy goes to japan

Zenkoji

Nagano City

Apprently, all Buddhists (or perhaps all Buddhists of a certain sect) must visit Zenkogi at least once in their lives. At least that's what a brochure said. Just in case I ever become Buddhist, I decided to go visit Zenkoji. If I do become Buddhist, I'll have the Zenkogi visit already taken care of! Hah!

By the way, I did end up taking "The Teaching of Buddha" from that bizarre hotel in Hiroshima. Looking at the index, they have an entry for "Meaning of Life". Page 8, Line 13. If only I knew it was that easy! Flipping to the correct page, I see that there is no line 13. In fact, nothing on the entire page has anothing to do with the meaning of life. Perhaps the index entry is some kind of Buddhist joke for newbies.

Exercise: Do a Yahoo! search for "Zen Stories to tell Your Neighbors". Excellent site, good stories.

Zen-Ko-Ji

This is the big sign. It's hanging on the big gate. Look carefully at it- can you see the doves that make up the symbols? Prince Somebody calligraphed the sign back in the 1600's, and the monks were so impressed by it that they put it up on their gates, where it's been ever since.

Zenkogi is huge. As such, in a small place like Nagano, it's very easy to find. Get out of the train station at the Zenkogi plaza, and follow any of the roads in front of you. It's about a 20-minute walk, and you'll soon see signs directing you to the proper area.

Like all temples around Japan, it's not complete without a major shopping area on the paths leading up to it. Even inside the main temple building, there are little vending machines selling incense and tickets into the main meditation area. No entry with shoes or without ticket.

The big temple building.

Lots of people everywhere, and lots of pigeons too. I'm not sure about the birds- like the shopping, they seem to come along with the temple. I've yet to see a temple anywhere in Japan that did not come with a large contingent of pigeons. There was a duck here too, but he looked too silly.

Remember the 12 stone buddhas and one stone penguin? Remember how they all had little red caps? It seems to be a tradition, since all the stone buddhas here also have little knitted red caps. Some have nature-made puffy snow hats, and they looked even cuter than the red-hatted ones, so they got their picture taken.

Chilly-headed stone buddhas

There was a spot near the middle of the plaza area where massive Costco-sized bushels of insense were being burned inside a big stone statue with holes. From watching what other people did, it looks like people waft the smoke from the holes onto their clothes, hair and faces. So I went up and did the same. For the next hour or so, as I walked through Nagano, I could still smell the aroma of the insense on me. The smell really sticks to people!

Or, come to think of it, perhaps most of Nagano smells like that anyway...