Gian-ji Temple

Another of the Shikoku 88 pilgrimage temples. This one we again ran into by accident, and thought we would check it out, seeing how we were already there. Here is the information the sign said, which I found interesting , "According to the legend at the end of the 16th century, at the time of the fall of the powerful Kono family line, the remaining clan members gathered here at Gian-ji Temple. Upon drinking the sacred water from the spring they vowed to serve the Kono lord forever, before dying together, each by his own sword. The spring still remains and is known at the "Spring of Oaths" . Legend has it that the souls of the samarai who committed such ritual suicide were reborn as fireflies, which appear every summer. This species of firefly is large in size, and although actually called, "Genji Botaru" (Genji Firefly), they are known locally as, "Gian-ji Botaru" , after the temple. Many people journey to this temple, even from outside of Ehime [that is the prefecture] to take part in the pilgrimage..."



Above: Fortunes tied onto trees.


Incense burning. I LOVE that smell. It smelled so good here. I never liked the smell in America, but now I associate it as the "temple smell". It's rather nice.


Here is the graveyard by the temple. People in Japan are cremated, so I guess it really isn't properly a graveyard, it's more of a cemetery.


Here are some palm trees. It seems a strange place for them, as I don't see too many palm trees here (except for my trip to Kyushu).

Isaniwa-Jinja

So when we finally reached the top of the steps (the previous post), this was what we saw. Here is the entrance to the shrine.

Above: The cord is so you can ring the bell to get the kami's attention.

The layout of this shrine was interesting. Basically everything went around the main worship area. You walked around the outside of it. There was a garden in the middle as well.



Above: These shrines are used in a festival that took place about a week after we left the area. We got to see people practicing for it though in downtown Matsuyama. Anyway, a bunch of guys carries this portable shrine and then another group carries another one and they try to knock the people with the other one over. I have a video of it somewhere. It was really interesting.
There were many very old paintings on wood. Really, old, cool stuff.






Last, a view looking back down at the town of Dogo from the top of the stairs.

Lots of stairs

This was in the Dogo Onsen area as well. These are the stairs to Isaniwa-jinja Shrine. There were a lot of them and they were very uneven and kind of difficult to walk up and down. This is the temple we were looking for when we accidentally ran into the one mentioned in the previous post. It is the first of eight shrines in Matsuyama dedicated to the god of war. It was built on the location where the emperor used to stay a long, long time ago when he went to Dogo Onsen. In order to see it, you have to climb all these stairs, which is the case with most cool things in Japan. You have to work for it to see it!



This dragon was the first thing you saw after you climbed all those steps. I was tired so I stood here for a bit to admire the scenery before moving on.

The Pilgrimage Road

On the island of Shikoku there are 88 famous sites. Pilgrims walk from temple to temple. They get these stamps that prove they've been there. You can spot of pilgrim because of there white clothes and big triangular straw hats. I asked if it was cheating if you drove from temple to temple and one of my students said they think so, but they don't know anyone who would do that. It takes about three months or so to walk to all of them I think I read somewhere. This one one of the first pilgrimage temples I visited. I don't remember the number of the name because we weren't specifically trying to go there. We just saw it on our way to another pilgrimage site and stopped. Why there was nothing particularly special about it each temple is unique in it's own way and I always stop and have a look when I can. I never get tired of looking at them.

Spring water. You wash your hands with it before you go pray at the temple. I liked this simple bamboo one.

The strips of paper is a religious thing, but I have not a clue what for. You see it everywhere. I should ask my Japanese teacher.
There is Markian at the bottom of the pathway, he's trying to see which way we're supposed to go to go to the temple we meant to go to. So, now we're about to make the pilgrimage home to America, although it's only temporary. I'm excited, but dreading the long flight.

Photoshop, anyone?

Yeah, didn't have anyone to take the picture so had to do it in two separate shots. Markian said we should photo shop it together. I love cheesy pictures like these. These were taken in front of Dogo Onsen.

So, we've been in Japan for about exactly a year now. In some ways it seems like I've just arrived and in other ways it seems like I've been here forever! I'm looking forward to the journey home in some ways and dreading it in others. Not that's it's permanent. I still have another year of Japanese life to look forward to. There are so many things I love and hate about Japan. I feel like I have a love/hate relationship with it, well the same way I guess I do about America. Everywhere has it's pros and cons. I think Markian likes it better here though than I do somedays. If I get really frustrated at work or irritated about something I can't have here, and start talking about moving home, he's usually all like, "Why would you want to go home?" I think he really likes living in the city. I do too, but he seems very well accustomed to it. Granted, he's had a better work experience here than I have. Hiroshima City seems so huge to me, but to most Japanese people it is small. The population is around the size of Chicago. There are high rises everywhere. It makes downtown Memphis look like a piddly street corner here! Granted, Memphis doesn't have that many high rises, but I always felt like it was mostly urban sprawl. It's nice to be in a city where I can rely on public transport to get almost anywhere.
I've met a lot of new awesome people this year, which I'm really thankful for. Many people have helped me adjust to my new life here. I don't know if I could have done it without them. It's nice to have people you can depend on. I'm often shy around new people, so I'm glad I've made many new friends this year. I'm starting to see some improvement in my Japanese as well. The lessons are really helping. I can read and write (well not many kanji, but katakana and hiragana), and I can form some basic sentences. My vocabulary sucks though, so I need to crack down and study, but I'm usually so tired from work that it doesn't happen.

Speaking of that, it's about 1:30 AM and I had better get some sleep. I was just happy because the internet was working. See some of you very soon, which isn't soon enough! おやすみなさい!

Sexy Gals

You can also get ramen apparently (that's what the sign below with the red background says). These pictures were taken in Dogo Onsen. Most onsen areas have some kind of sex district nearby. This one was kind small because well, Dogo isn't a huge place. We kinda accidently wandered into this area while looking for something to eat. Well, there was ramen, so I wasn't too wrong that I saw stuff in this direction. Markian fussed at me for taking the picture. I think he was embarrassed if people saw me taking it.

Our feet went to the onsen

Even though we didn't properly go into Dogo onsen because of my stupid fear, we did enjoy a nice foot bath at Dogo. There was a community foot bath at the entrance to the main shopping arcade. It was quiet crowded during most of the day. We waited till night when people were out and finally got a turn. The water was extremely hot and it was difficult to put my whole fot in the water at first. Once we got our feet in the water it felt really nice since we'd been walking around all day.

I took this picture to show how hot the water was because my pale white legs looked like a lobster when I took them out of the water, but you can't see it that well here.