The first one is Saijou-Ji, a temple high on Daiyuu-zan (大雄山), a mountain very close to Mount Fuji. This magnificent temple is dedicated to a mythical creature known as the Tengu, a red faced mountain-dweller with a rather suggestive proboscis of a nose who, near as i can tell, is famous for mischief-making and the wearing of old-style Japanese "geta" (sandals) - and his nose. Tengu also carry quite distinctive fans made out of leaves and the insignia of Saijou-ji is a stylised version of one of these fans. The nickname of the temple is "Douryouson", which translates roughly as "Tengu respect temple" or something thereabouts. As such, it has many many huge red metal geta sandals that have been donated by various companies and organizations from around Japan. There are also a lot of stairs. A LOT of stairs. But we went all the way to the top where there was a beautiful little shrine tucked in among massive cedar trees and exhausted tourists. There i got an Omikuji (lucky fortune) and received Dai-Kichi ("Big Luck") and it even included a tiny little golden turtle (to bless me with longevity), both of which i now keep in my wallet (which contains more fortunes and charms than money, it seems!). We didn`t see any Tengu, but it was a great morning and Goto-san was an excellent tour guide. After Saijou-ji we went to Lake Tanzawa and had a really nice lunch of whole fish and raw deer. But that will have to wait until another post...
that`s a pretty big drum...
Saijou-Ji insignia:
detail of the bell-house pillar (this amazing carving is about eight feet tall):
the stupa (one of the nicest i`ve seen in Japan):
one of the guardian deities that guard all buddhist temples:
that`s a pretty big hammer...
that`s a lot of sandals...
that`s a lot of stairs... (actually this is less than half of the stairs! - i have walked up all the stairs in the CN Tower in Toronto, and i still felt this was entirly too many steps!)
