Sunday, June 16, 2013

Meiji Jingu temple and grounds

Another one of the major sacred sites of Japan.  The main purpose is to revere Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken for their admirable virtues. They guided Japan into what is called the Meiji Period where Japan came out of isolation and took on western ways. The Emperor and Empress made sure that much of Japanese culture was maintained while the absorption of western culture was taken in. 
The grounds consisted of beautiful gardens am a shrine.
An entry
A resting spot.
Too bad a photo can't trap a smell.
Awesome door
Twisting trees
And lots of turtles that I think are particularly cool. I had a small amount of mom's ashes left. I tossed them in to live in the scared spot with the turtles. She belongs.

I came to Japan to honor my mom. And I think I did a pretty good job. She deserved it and so much more. Mostly this trip has reminded me of the courageous way she lived the last year of her life with great courage and acceptance and enjoying every moment she had left on this earth.
Enjoy today I know I will.

Tokyo

Woke up early and went to Tuskiji market. The famous fishermen. I could not get up early enough to get to the tuna auction, but I saw plenty of cool things
Madness
Big tuna head
Big fish = big knives
Squid
Unagi, yum
Octopus
Clams? Pretty regardless
A whole lotta
Daikon 
No idea but looks cool
Knives knives and more knives
Desert
I got a few treats. The new green teas are coming out so there are those and all sorts o green tea flavored goodies. 


Atami and Tokyo

Leaving Ito I realized my trip is almost over. So sad. There is still so much to see and experience. When on my travels I had a contact here who was an email only friend of my mom's. When I had questions on rituals, needed help making a reservation in Japanese, or needed translations she was a great help. We met in Atami for lunch and some shopping. 
For lunch I finally had unagi (eel), which I love. And the soup had eel kidney in it. I can check that off now. 
She took me up a mountain and a team ride to see Mt Fuji but unfortunately it was cloudy. But I did get a peak of it on the train ride to Tokyo. Oh well, just another reason to return. 
The shop and some great marketry woven patterns that the area is known for.
It was really nice to meet her and thank her for all her help. Just having a constant contact was very reassuring. I gave Mitsi a marble and asked her to do something special with it. She told me she is going to carry her everywhere she goes. I love this for so many reasons.

Back to Tokyo where I started. I called someone I had met when I was here 3 weeks ago and met him and another guy for dinner. Another new and yummy experience- okonomi-yaki. Prepared and then served to you on a hot brittle in the middle of the table. 
It was really great to see someone I had seen on my first days here on my last. And to be able to say hey since the last time I saw you I saw 17 place and circumnavigated to whole island and it was so magical!





Saturday, June 15, 2013

Ito

Miraculously, I did not much today. I walked in the ocean. I read by the river side.
I soaked. I ate. I even took a nap! But near then end of the day I checked in with the world and discovered a friend had died. Thanks to this Temple be speckled country I had a place to go to pray that he found the peace he could not find in life. 
Bukkoji Temple was the closest. A woman opened the doors to the temple for me. She was trying to tell me about the temple stamp and the various prayer options I could purchase in japanese, which i do not understand, when I told her why I was there. She brought me to the alter and led me in Japanese in a repetitive prayer and indicated a moment in which I was to say my words of prayer to my friend. 
She was very consoling. 
Life and death do continue on.
From great sadness comes the appreciation of simple happiness. I watched a crane fish for food, a duck work his little feet to paddle up stream, and a pigeon trying to woo his mate with a groovy head bobbing maneuver.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Ito- to chill

I have seen something like 16 places in Japan. All this traveling has been a bit taxing. I met a woman in Kagoshima that told me about this onsen in Ito. She teaches english near Tokyo and told me she comes here to relax. Soak, read, sleep recycle. Sounded good to me. This place is a 100 year old wooden building, with 3 soaking tubs: 2 private, one public, kitchen, laundry, lounge areas, and tv room. And it's a hostel on top of all that(= cheap)!
My room is on the 3rd floor second from the left. It's a female dorm but I am the only one in it.
Inside
My room
My deck over looking the river
The public bath
The private one
Mom would have loved this place and she deserved the pampering.
My first night here I sat in the lounge drinking tea after my onsen. I met this gentleman from Denmark in Japan for his second time for vacation and taking Japanese lessons. We talked for a bit. He too had experienced some family tragedy. We discussed our different coping mechanisms. He told me that our conversation was the deepest he'd had his whole time in Japan or even this year.  Turns out he's a sound engineer for the theater. Mom loved the performing arts. I don't think my mom had ever been to Denmark. Ken's taking her there.

Osorzan

This whole trip I have tried to be open to the directions I am led. And as it happens they have all led me to exactly the right spot. While in Toyama I had a 5 minute conversation with a man about what I was doing and he suggested I go to Osorezan. So I did. It took a single car train to not where and a bus ride. All in total about 2 hours one way.
The place I brought me to was un-paralleled. Finally no school children and hardly any people. This final resting place was truly peaceful, and yet there was an incessant insanely loud strum of either frog,cycadas,or crickets, or a combination so loud coming from the woods just beyond this barren site. I cannot describe place better than as is already written, "Osorezan is also known as entrance to afterlife, because it features geographical elements similar to descriptions of Buddhist hell and paradise, including eight surrounding peaks and a river, Sanzu no Kawa, which has to be crossed by all dead souls on their way to afterlife and is often compared to the River Styx of ancient Greek mythology."

This is a place where people come to pray for the repose of their parent or guidance for their children in the afterlife.
What better spot than here to receive some marbles and the last of the ashes I brought.
The bodhisattva that the founding priest carved and established here was Jizô. "Jizô's virtues is linked to that of the mother earth, which never minds being tread on and willingly supports all in the world from below. His compassion is compared to motherly love, through which he shares the suffering of those who are on pain. Jizô vows to suffer hell himself to allocate the pain of those condemned to hell, to free human beings from the illusion of life and death in this world, and to lead even heavenly beings of the purer world to eternal salvation. Thanks to these vows of the bodhisattva Jizô  the sulphurous valley in the depth of this mountainous area becomes a land of salvation, where absolute peace and happiness are freely given. Here one can listen to an inaudible sermon. Which teaches that any place is Paradise so far as Jizô is there."
How more perfect could this place be for my mom. I did not have nearly as much time at this place as I would have liked.
Even before you enter the official grounds  6 Jizô's( I think).
The gate
The guards
A turtle with passengers, for luck
The drawing on the exterior was stunning
Gorgeous sign no idea what it says
The terrain.
Daiol-Ishi. He was in the back of the grounds and seemed strikingly important and alone.
I gave him some company and someone to watch over.
This individual with single child I found to be symbolic.
So with its other offerings I added one more.
And then I got the the waters edge. Poisonous for the living, but not for the dead.
I kneaded at the waters edge and asked for whatever was there to guide my mom to her new place. As I tossed up her ashes into the water the heavier particles fell,but in the wind the dust briskly danced away in figurative clouds. I included a coin for the ferry man.
Sayonara mamala, happy journeys.