Shrine hopping......

Lost count of the number of shrines I visited while in Japan...but seriously, after some time, all the shrines start to look the same, much like the cathedrals and churches one encounters in Europe. The shrines are especially breath-taking when adorned with the autumn foliage. Here are a few notable ones that left an impression:


The Daibutsu (Great Buddha) of Kamakura:
You can see from the pic its imposing size that dwarfs the people in the foreground. Two interesting anecdotes about this Daibutsu. Apparently, it was once enclosed within a shrine, but the shrine was blown away by some tsunami or destroyed by an earthquake, leaving behind only the mammoth sculpture! The other thing about it is that its head had toppled a few times due to earthquake tremours! Kinda reminds me of the little mermaid sculpture in Copenhagen, Denmark, which had to suffer the indignity of having vandals sawn off her head (more than once) and thrown into the sea. The naval divers had to be called in to retrieve it and glue it back!

Toudai-ji in Kyoto:
Featured in the pic here is the 'bridge that passes through heaven'  (tong tian qiao) that is located on the temple grounds. Alas, I was late by ten minutes and the ticket office closed. Could only take a pic from the other side. Looks like heaven is beyond me. But I'm content to remain on earth if it's shrouded by such beautiful autumn foliage....

Kinkaku-ji (The Golden Temple), Kyoto:
yup, it's coated with gold leaves alright. But for some reason, I wasn't too fascinated with it. As the saying goes, 'all that glitter is not gold'.

Ginkaku-ji (The Silver Temple), Kyoto:
The original plan to coat the temples here in silver leaves did not come to pass, but this temple remains the most memorable one among those I've visited. Such postcard-perfect pics:

 

Osaka-jo (Osaka Castle):
Not exactly a shrine, but a fortress with a moat....very imposing from the outside...

The Philosopher's Path....

This is yet another entry in my bucket list for the trip. The name alone triggered off such idyllic notions in me that I felt I must walk that same path made famous by a celebrated Jap poet/philosopher (can't remember his name, but it's one of those MSG sounding Jap names).

signboard marking starting point of walk from the northern end

carved on this rock at the starting point are the kanji characters "The Philosopher's Walk"

here's how the walk resembles

shops  hugging one side of the walk

VERDICT: I felt so stupid and cheated after finishing the walk....and hey, it's not  short ok. Took me about one hour plus to complete it. And I've already been walking all day! Yes, it's a nice walk, very pleasant with trees and water on one side and shops on the other. There's even a gentle breeze caressing my cheeks as I strolled down the path. It was kind of like Dorothy following the trail of the yellow brick road in "Wizard of Oz"! But hey, the fact remains that it's just a CANAL! We could've done the same in Singapore with our Singapore river or Geylang river and then hyped it up by intellectualizing it with some half-baked myth about how someone famous once left his trail of footprints there! I bet you tourists will be sold! Sprinkle a few shops along the canal and you'll have a potential tourist attraction! It's all about marketing!

Tourists can be so naïve and made to do the stupidest things -- yours truly is no exception. In previous trips, I have kissed the Blarney Rock in Cork, Ireland:

kissing this slab of rock is no mean feat; you have to bend over backwards (literally!) to kiss it, and all this while suspended high above the ground. Ended up banging my forehead against the rock instead! Legend has it that kissing the Blarney Rock will give one the gift of the gab.

the rock is located at the top of this castle

But I digress....that was in Ireland years ago....Back to this Japan trip, I did another stupid thing designed to humiliate tourists, but I still fell for it. In the Toudaiji temple in Nara, there was a pillar in the temple which has a small cavity at the bottom. The story goes that those who manage to crawl through it will be 'enlightened', at least according to the description in my trusty Lonely Planet, everyone's travel bible.

there u go, the pic says it all...My curiosity was piqued by the long queue, and I finally succumbed. What followed nearly made me die of embarrassment -- I got stuck in the hole, with my legs sticking out from one end and my hands flailing frantically from the other. I've underestimated my thinness. I could neither propel myself forward nor retract myself. There was a hush of silence outside, as the onlookers were taken aback, probably frozen with embarrassment and did not know how to react. For a while, I thought I was going to suffer the utter humiliation of being stuck there as the crowd watched and snapped photos. With the sculpture of the Daibutsu (the Great Buddha) barely metres away from me, I felt like the Monkey God being pinned under the five-finger mountain! Fortunately, I managed to wriggle out with one final, desperate push, and quickly made a hasty exit -- without daring to meet the gaze of the onlookers. So did I become 'enlightened', you ask? Well, one thing's for sure -- I felt like a real fool!

a blurred pic of the Daibutsu that dominates the main altar in the Toudaiji temple...it's barely metres away from the pillar under which I was stuck!

The Deer of Nara.....

What is especially memorable about my short stay in the little town of Nara is that there are deer roaming around freely, juz like the stray cats and dogs we have here in Singapore! They are protected (and I think regarded as sacred) here in Nara, esp in the large expanse of the park. And if u buy those deer biscuits (I think we can eat them too) from the numerous hawkers around, juz hold one out and the deer will come eating out of ur hands -- literally!

A bizarre sight of a deer trotting leisurely down the main thoroughfare leading to the Toudaiji, a temple where the Daibutsu (sculpture of the Great Buddha) is enshrined. Just imagine it doing that in busy Orchard Road on a weekend! As it sauntered down the path, the sea of people just parted like the red sea, a testament to its sacred status. It really walks with a royal trot, as though it owns the road. I wonder if the cows enjoy a similar treatment in India.

A common scene of child feeding deer.... 

I was really floored by this! Deer on zebra crossing! It'll be fun to see a real zebra doing that! Reminds me of a trip many years ago enroute to Sapa in Vietnam, where our four-wheel drive had to constantly look out for chickens crossing the road.

deer getting chummy with the cars on the roads....and yes, the deer have the right of way here in Nara...Knock one down and you'll be cursed by the gods for eternity!

Would have been a nice shot with the autumn foliage above, if not for the fact that the deer is too small....should've zoomed in further...

deer sun-tanning in the middle of the road, eyes closed, as if luxuriating in the warmth of the sun, totally oblivious to the crowd around it....really bo chap!

they come with horns too, antlers. These are the males, but most of them have to suffer the indignity of having their proud antlers sawn off....saw quite a few which are de-horned. Looks really ridiculous with two stumps sticking out halfway from their heads. In my head I was thinking: Oh dear! the poor deer/dear... it must have felt like castration!

A lone deer I encountered at the peak when I trekked up this hill overlooking the town of Nara. When it sensed my presence, it suddenly looked up and gazed at me with an intensity that unsettled me. At that moment, for some ridiculous reason, I suddenly felt like Gulliver when he was eyed by a Yahoo when he (i.e. Gulliver) was taking a bath in a pond. Those of you who have no idea what I'm alluding to, go read the orgasmic Book 4 of Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels". And NO, the Yahoo here has nothing to do with Marissa Mayer or the internet search engine! Back to my narrative, I had to quickly beat a hasty retreat downhill, so hasty that I didn't even have time to snap a pic of its intense gaze.

The Yasukuni Shrine

Nope...in case u're wondering, this is not the name of some burger off the menu at the MOS Burger outlet. This first item on my bucket list for the trip, and also the first place I paid a visit to in Japan after settling my accommodation matters, is none other than the highly controversial Yasukuni Jinjia (war shrine). I've taught this example for GP countless times, so much so that I need to see it for myself, and tread on the very ground on which the shrine had been erected. For those still dwelling in the well, croaking away in ignorance, this is the sacred shrine where the Japanese war dead were buried, including the controversial Class A war criminals from World War II. Each time Japanese ministers (including the PM) go there to pay their respects, China and South Korea will rise in protest and threaten to sever bilateral ties. With so much explosive hoo-har going about this sacred site, how can I not leave my Dark Shadow footprints there? (not that anyone's gonna protest about my visit there, nor is it going to raise any storm in any tea cup!) So u can imagine my sense of anticipation as I took the train there....and finally, I was greeted by the portal marking one of the entrances to the shrine:

the stone lion guarding the entrance, next to a wooden plaque spelling out 'Yasukuni Jinjia' in kanji characters

And here we are....apparently, the place behind the veil is where the Class A war criminals are laid to rest, I think. I didn't dare to ask anyone. Can you imagine me asking, 'So is this where all the WWII Class A war criminals are buried?' I may be naïve, but I'm not stupid! They may be war criminals to us, but to the Japs, these are heroes, patriots who died for their nation! Periodically, people will go up there, bow, clasp their hands together and utter a prayer for the deceased. And in my mind I was thinking, so this is where all the evil soldiers who caused so much misery to our people during WWII are buried, including that guy called Yamashita (whom I studied about in secondary school) who presided over Singapore during the Japanese Occupation. Should I 'grace' the holy site with my spit? I was half tempted to do an Ai Weiwei by taking a snapshot of me flashing my finger (nope, not the thumb, but the phallic middle finger) in the foreground, with the sacred shrine in the background, a la the infamous photos that China's controversial modern artist Ai Weiwei is infamous for (see pic below).  However, this exciting thought was quickly snuffed out. A guard nearby was eyeing me suspiciously, so the coward in me quickly beat a hasty retreat after snapping a few 'safe' shots.

the veil, behind which I think the war criminals are buried

Ai Weiwei's controversial photo -- giving the 'finger' to the Forbidden City in the background. No wonder he was arrested. Try doing that to the Merlion or the Istana and see what happens!

a leaf I plucked from a tree near the shrine when no one's looking....and damn, what an ugly tattered leaf!
 

One thing though... there was a small museum near the shrine where u can see a humane side to the whole controversy, Here on display are letters written by the Jap soldiers to their loved ones, be it their wife, children or aged parents.....English translation is available, and u start to realise that at the end of the day, these soldiers are humans too. There is a certain poignancy in their letters, esp when they were writing with the premonition that they would not be coming back home alive. Some critics have lambasted this as romanticising the Japs' part in the war, but it brought home the lesson that in a war, nobody wins. I also stumbled upon something I never knew before. Apparently, according to the exhibits there, the Japanese tried to negotiate a truce with the Americans (this was before the Pearl Harbour Bombing) but were rebuffed. But of course, this needs further verification. But if this is true, it will put a whole new twist to my understanding of the political dynamics during WWII.