Entries about temple

Yesterday we traded the mountains for the beach as we said goodbye to Nikko and headed to Kamakura. We really were quiet yesterday arriving in Kamakura about 1pm we dropped our bags off & checked out our quirky room at Omachi Junxion. The weather has been quite warm & humid here so I’m actually looking forward to some cool weather for a change. We had a little walk around the area, stumbled across a temple you can’t enter but you are able to explore the grave yard with its graves hidden in niches in the rock.

First up today we caught the electric railway to The Great Buddha, it wasn’t as big as the one at Nara but still quite impressive as this one stood out in the open and for a small fee you got to go inside. Inside was not really that exciting just a hollowed out Buddha, no peaking out the eyes or anything, still interesting learning how it was build.

Leaving Buddha we found a hiking trail through to some other temples, the stairs to the start were hard work but after that it was alright except somehow we ended up back on a major road. Never mind we managed to find our way to Zeniarai Benzaiten Ugafuku Jinja Shrine, where we washed some of our money as the story goes its meant to double....I’m still waiting. However it was still pretty cool you entered through a rock tunnel into an open area and the shrine where you washed the money was in a niche in another rock.

On our way had noticed another shrine, Sasuke Imari Jinja Shrine so we detoured via that, more steps (I’ll sleep well tonight) and there were all these little cat figures. Actually thinking back they were kinda creepy cat figures, small & exactly the same, I’m sure they followed us.

After one last noodle soup we jumped on a packed electric railway car and headed for Enoshima, an island connected by a bridge. There are steps up to the Shrine but there’s also an escalator!!! I know an outdoor escalator, I was exciting & quickly jumped inline to pay I had had enough of stairs for the day. We explored a little at the top before taking the steps down (escalator only goes up {insert sad face}).

After all the walking & stairs plus a couple gin & tonics (with real tonic!) during happy hour think I’ll sleep well tonight.

...and Shrine day, stair day & walk 25,000plus steps day.

We arrived in Nikko yesterday after our relaxing travel day (be warned there’s another one tomorrow, really I’m just getting you ready for next week when the trips over but I am open for sponsorship so I don’t have to return to the 8-5 job -hahaha). It’s a pretty place on the edge of mountains but I just can’t photograph it how I want.

Today we visited a few more unesco sites, I’ve totally lost count of the number of temples & shrines I’ve seen recently but I will tell you most have been amazing & today was no exception. It’s hard not to take a million photos & really the photos do not do them justice.

Nikkozan Rinnoji Temple Sanbutsu-do

Nikko Toshogu Shrine - if you have to pick just one pick this one it’s stunning

Nikko Futarasan-jinga Shrine

Nikkozan Rinnoji Temple Taiyu-in (warning step steps)

Strolling back towards the city we passed through this beautiful avenue of trees.

I opted to cross the Shinkyo Bridge, photos don’t do it justice but hopefully it’ll bring me some luck.

My favourite part of today was visiting these guys - Kanmagafuchi Abyss there nestled next to gorge, little waterfalls, a peaceful kinda place, I could have stayed for hours. Apparently if you count these guys the number always changes.

Really this is only a small amount of what we’ve seen today, there’s been other little temples, shrines & plenty of river shots.

Today we took a day trip to Nara & crossed off some Unesco sites plus the Big Buddha was on our want to see list. We managed to see 6 out of 8 sites before we ran out of time. So to be brief this was our day

Kohfukuji Temple

Kasuga Yaisha Shrine

Todaiji Temple

Yakushiji Temple

Toshodaiji Temple (we were too late to see in this one bit we still got a look at the outside)

72F52C74-3717-4E6A-9039-12422CE96416

We walked to the first few temples (yes we’ve well & truly done our steps for today) and you go through the deer park. The deer just roam the open spaces, people feed them, pat them, take stupid selfies......

Tomorrow we are having a proper travel day something like 5.5 hours train travel so I don’t think there will be a blog entry.

Sorry I bet your now singing it like I was after I heard some kid singing it this morning. The weather forecast wasn’t going to be in our favour so we opted to visit the Osaka Aquarium. It was pretty good we saw puffins, penguins having an ice bath, dolphins playing, the whale sharks surveying there tank, little schools of fish, patted a shark & sting ray (I think I can still feel that horrible jelly like skin), I could go on but I’ll let you have a look at these pictures.

Leaving the aquarium the weather wasn’t too bad the odd spot of rain so we jumped on the largest Ferris wheel, in 1997 it was the tallest but has since been over taken. At 112.5m it was enough for me, I was fine until we were about 3/4s of the way up and then it sunk in how high we were but it was ok.

Since we had seen a few other castles we thought we better get a look at the Osaka Castle, we opted not to go in.

Leaving the castle we were stopped by two nervous school girls asking if they could interview us, they asked us a couple of questions, where are you from, favourite food & sport, etc. when done they gave us a nice certificate to say thank you.

We thought we could fit in the Shitenno-ji Temple but they must have closed before we got there, we could still see the temple grounds just not inside.

I have a gripe with people staying in hostels, I get that you come in late that’s fine but seriously do you need to go through every plastic bag in your bag......numerous times???? Anyway whinge over this has been our home for the past few nights

Since everyone else was up early in the dorm we headed off to Miyajima, took a street car & the ferry to get there and the weather well it was overcast and we did have some light rain but it didn’t stop us. We roamed the streets for a while, so many souvenir shops we soon got sick of them and the deer roaming the island well they just blended in after a while.

We braved the crowds (mostly tour groups) and walked around The Itsukushima shrine as the tide started to go out.

And why does anyone go to Miyajima....to see the O-Torii Gate of course, we were there long enough to see it before & after the tide went out. Sadly it really does look like it’s in a dire need of a good paint job but this is one of my favourite photos, you can see the size of it with the people around.

There was also the Daigan-Ji temple nearby we took a quick look at.

It felt like we were doing the hike but instead it was only a stroll to the ropeway, there was a sign that said 10mins, 7 if you run a little. Pretty sure distance is one of those things lost in translation. There’s two different cable cars that take you to the Shishiiwa observatory and of course this is when it decides to throw down some light rain, when we’re on top of a mountain. Since the views weren’t great we opted not to summit Mt Misen.

Now this is the point we start to get ‘hangry’ and we’ll we had been told to try the oysters, it’s what there known for and well when in Rome. I tried an oyster and well wasn’t that keen on it but still I ate it pretty sure the fact it was grilled & had been flavoured with sake helped hahaha

Another thing they are known for on Miyajima is Momiji Manjyu I guess it’s a biscuit with some kind of filling, well I had been told to try the deep fried version. So that’s a sponge cake with some filling (the pig I am tried two custard & cheese both great) then dipped in batter & deep fried.

Last night after been inspired all day I attempted another paper crane (don’t ask about my one the night before it was crane like that’s about it) to leave to join the thousands for the next peace Memorial Day in August.