My Japan Adventure18829
 Where's his Bat-package?
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This delightful Pikachu vending machine has a feature where it is capable of shooting cans from its crotch even if the power gets cut off in the event of an emergency.  |
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I guess it's a shame I'm a teetotaler...??  |
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Quote:Originally Posted by Byrdibyrd No. |
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Quote:Originally Posted by Jesse_O Heartily agree  |
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My lunch at Ikinari Steak.   |
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Went shopping at this delightful store. What shame everything was so expensive.    The name of the store is Fxxking Rabbits. |
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Best gatcha ever from Fxxking Rabbits |
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| I'll be heading home tomorrow. Spent today checking out a temple in Tōkyō. The temple is Jōshin-ji, but it's also known as Kuhonbutsu, which means '9 Buddhas.' This refers to the extremely rare complete set of nine icons of Amida, who resides over the Western Paradise. There is only one other set of nine Amidas in the country, and it's at Jōruri-ji Temple in Kyōto prefecture. There used to be many such sets back in Ye Olden Dayes, but they were usually broken up over time. Some would have part of the set destroyed or one of them donated to a new temple in need of an icon. What surprised me here was the sheer size of the nine icons in question. They had to be housed in three separate halls. That is something I was not expecting. | ||
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Another surprise at Jōshin-ji were the lovely egret guardians.  They had egret guardians because the temple is known for its rare (for Japan) white egret orchids in its garden. |
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Quote:Originally Posted by Byrdibyrd Were you able to get pictures? |
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Quote:Originally Posted by Jesse_O The best I could do was this sad shot. No photos in the halls (no surprise there - that's rarely allowed) and surprisingly little to give scale outside. The sun was also in a position that made it difficult to take photos at all without going blind.   I'd estimate that the icons were each around 15 feet tall and seated on large lotus bases that were nearly as wide as the icons were tall. I've seen the set of nine Amidas at Jōruri-ji, and they aren't half this size. This set at Jōshin-ji dates from the 17th century, which is really odd, because icons this size are usually much older. In the early days of Buddhism in Japan, one of the few ways that was used to create a perception of divinity was to make icons impressively large. This is why the Great Buddha of Nara at Tōdai-ji Temple is so massive. Gold leaf and richly decorated halls came later. These nine Amidas are immense for icons as 'recent' as the 17th century. |
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| @Byrdibyrd that's awesome!! Thanks for sharing the pictures and the history. Are all the Buddha's seated? I'm trying to imagine a statue that huge and it's mind boggling!! | ||
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Quote:Originally Posted by Jesse_O All nine are seated, and each one has a different mudra (hand gesture) that represents the nine grades or classes into which people fall when they enter the Western Paradise in search of enlightenment. The icons are very impressive and are undergoing preservation, so one was missing when I was there. I'd like to go back when the preservation is finished so I can see all nine. I'll aim for fall  because I saw some maples on the grounds, and it must be gorgeous with the fall colours. |
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Quote:Originally Posted by Byrdibyrd Safe travels! I mentioned before that my 2018 trip was around this time of year, as posts are popping up in my Facebook memories. It's been interesting following your trip along with that. I even departed for home on April 24 that year. |
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| @scratchtasia Thanks!! I'm home now and being mobbed by very needy kitties, which is not a bad situation to be in.  I spent my last day checking a few places out. I went to Togoshi Hachiman-jinja and Hebikubo Tenso-jinja, which is an amazing snake shrine!! I will have photos in a while, but for now my phone is charging and I'm much too stupid to be transferring things around. |
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| Because I haven't been able to post things the way I would have liked, I'm thinking of going back over my trip, one day at a time, and doing things more to my satisfaction. I'll lose the immediacy of actually being in Japan when I'm posting, but I can at least give a better explanation of some of the places I went to. Cool places like Maruoka Castle and Fujii-dera Temple deserve more attention than they got. | ||
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| Welcome Home!!! |
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Quote:Originally Posted by dfoster43 Thanks! It's good to be home. I was missing my kitties pretty bad there. Next trip coming up in September, by the way!! |
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