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One day in Tokyo I headed west on my bike on Waseda Dori (from my apartment near Waseda University) and just kept going. After several miles I got on Old Waseda Dori (Kyu Waseda Dori or 旧早稲田通り) and ended up at Shakujii, a wonderful area of parks, shrines, Buddhist temples, and ponds. Today’s photo comes from one of those temples. It must have been spring time as the irises were in bloom in this pic.
Not too far from the Musashi Koganei Station (武蔵小金井駅) near Kodaira City (小平市) on the western side of Tokyo you can find the Buddhist Temple known as Kaiganji (海岸寺). There you will see these water lilies. I suppose they could be lotus, but I think lotus are above, rather than on, the water.
There are Toshogu shrines all over Japan, but the one in Nikko is the granddaddy of them all.
王子稲荷神社
If you are in Tokyo for New Year’s Eve you may find the festivities to be rather tame as most people stay home and watch TV. However, there are several places where there is some action and this shrine is one of them. Oji Inari Jinja is the head Inari shrine of the eight provinces of the Kanto region (greater Tokyo area). On New Year’s Eve, foxes, who are considered to be the guardians and messengers of the god Inari, gather here from all over the Kanto region. There is an annual Oji Fox Parade on New Year’s Eve to honor the foxes that gather here on this night. Everyone dresses up, and it is said to be quite the affair. I haven’t actually been there on New Year’s Eve myself.
I have been in the Tokyo area on two New Year’s Eves. For the first (in 1988) I went to Kawasaki Daishi (川崎大師). For the second (in 2009) we celebrated the new year at Zojoji (増上寺). I would recommend either of those places as well.
法輪寺の梅
It won’t be long now before the plum blossoms begin to hit Japan (January and February for the most part). Today’s photo is from Horinji, a Buddhist temple near Waseda University in the center of Tokyo.
金泉湯 ads on lanterns at Japanese festival
Japanese characters (kanji) on lanterns all look pretty cool to foreign eyes. When you can actual read the characters, though, the ones advertising places like 金泉湯 (Golden Spring Baths–a Japanese Sento or public bath) seem much cooler–and much more Japanese–than those advertising a local doctor’s office or McDonald’s.
Sadly, I never visited 金泉湯 (Kinsento), even though I walked past it a million times. I guess this is yet another reason why I need to go back to Tokyo one of these days. While the onsen (hot springs) establishments in Japan will never disappear, the number of sento are continually decreasing, and they could go extinct. I hope 金泉湯 is still around for my next visit.