Enmeiin Temple

Enmeiin (延命院) is a Buddhist temple belonging to the Chizan-ha branch of the Shingon school (真言宗智山派) of Buddhism. The temple was founded in 1063 in Utsunomiya city downtown by Souen Fujiwara (藤原宗円). The 18 meter tall Aesculus tree shown in the middle of the photo is believed to be 350 years old. This tree is special in Tochigi Prefecture because the genus of Aesculus is the symbol tree of the prefecture.

In general, Buddhist temple grounds include a cemetery and take care of memorial services for the deceased...

This is also an entry for Show Me Japan Vol 1, Issue 14. If you want to see nice photos taken in Japan, don't forget to visit!

And also for Scenic Sunday 135 and Best Posts of the Week.

        

That's What Moms Are For

Photographed at Futaarasan Chugushi Shrine in Nikko city. Kids wearing traditional kimono were well-behaved and moms took good care of them.

This is a Black and White Weekend, Shadow Shot Sunday #144, Weekend Portrait #2.

                   

Shrine Trees

Photographed at Futaarayama Shrine at night. The stage to the left is called Kaguraden Hall (神楽殿) where a traditional dance performance, Kagura (神楽), is dedicated to the Shinto deities.


This is an entry for Sky Watch Friday and Thursday challenge. The theme is "trees".

Monkey Business

Around a year ago in one of our blogs named Budget Trouble, we have introduced the restaurant in my town, Utsunomiya city, Tochigi prefecture, where monkeys are employed as waiters. We posted an article about this restaurant named "Kayabuki" with the video included (below).





Recently, our video went viral and have been watched over 300 thousand times in a week or so... It all started thanks to popular bloggers featuring the video. It appeared even on FOX2 in Detroit!

This video is sort of shocking and people tend to be creeped out by the appearance of the monkey. His name is Fuku-chan. He wore a girl's high school uniform and a wig when we went there.

We got numerous hysterical comments on this issue, claiming that we are animal abusers for filming the video??? Please read this if you are curious about it. Or please visit our Youtube site, if you are curious about comments we received.

Anyway, this is my world for this week. Welcome to my town, Utsunomiya!!!

This is a That's my world entry.

<Update>
Murphy's Law! As soon as I uploaded the link of our YouTube video, somebody claimed our video due to copyright claim (?). Uploaded a longer version of our video.

White Horse and A Girl

Photographed during the 1000 Samurai warriors parade (百物揃千人行列) at the World Heritage site in Nikko city, Tochigi prefecture.

This is a Camera Critters #149, Sunday In My City, and Spiritual Sunday entry.

                    

Safe Bridge

Three days ago, I posted a photo of a damaged bridge found in Lake Chuzenji (photos below).

            

Damaged Bridge

And one more

This bridge is obviously safe and used by several boat owners.

And also for Black and White Weekend, Shadow Shot Sunday #143, Scenic Sunday 134 and Weekend Reflections #73.

                 

Have a nice weekend.

All In One Frame

Yes, three famous buildings in NYC - the World Trade Center (no longer exists), the Empire State Building, and the Chrysler Building - are all in one place. This is photographed with a Fish eye lens (of course) at Tobu World Square (東武ワールドスクエア) in Nikko city.


This is an entry for Sky Watch Friday.

Dance Performance

Four shinto priests from Toshogu shrine (東照宮) dedicate a traditional dance performance, called Azuma asobi (東遊の舞), to Ieyasu TOKUGAWA (徳川家康). It takes place at a place between Haiden Hall and Honden Main Hall of Otabisho (御旅所) at the World Heritage site in Nikko city, Tochigi prefecture. It's a rare occasion to be able to see this dance performance; once in Spring and the other in Autumn for 1000 Samurai warriors parade (百物揃千人行列).

Image from Tsukuba University Library

This is a Sepia Scenes #120, Alphabe-Thursday entry (R is for rare), and Thursday Challenge. The theme is "TEXTURE", Best Posts of the Week and brand new meme Weekend Portrait #1.


             

Oh and one more.This is also an entry for Show Me Japan Vol 1, Issue 13. If you want to see nice photos taken in Japan, don't forget to visit!

"D"amaged Bridge

Photographed in Lake Chuzenji (中禅寺湖) in Nikko city. This lake is said to have appeared 20, 000 years ago when Mt. Nantai erupted and blocked the river. The exit of this lake is Kegon falls (華厳の滝). This 97m waterfall is too high for fishes to climb up. According to Futaarasan Shrine's record, there weren't any fish in Lake Chuzenji until 1878 when aquaculturing trout and the other species took place.

The bridge shown in the photo was damaged and it was too dangerous to walk. So the owner tied the entrance with strings.

If you want to see more photos of this beautiful lake, here we are.

        

This is a Outdoor Wednesday, Watery Wednesday, and ABC Wednesday entries. "D" is for "damaged".

               

Koukamon Gate

Koukamon Gate (皇嘉門) at Taiyuin (大猷院) at the World Heritage site in Nikko city, Tochigi prefecture. Taiyuin is a Buddhist temple at which the 3rd Tokugawa Shogun, Iemitsu Tokugawa (徳川家光) is worshipped.

Iemitsu TOKUGAWA (image from Wiki)

To enjoy what Taiyuin has to offer, you are supposed to pay 550 JPY (around $6-7). However, there are places that are still prohibited for visitors to enter. You will see warning "Off limit" signs at particular places.

Koukamon Gate, built under the influence of the Ming Dynasty style of China, is the entrance gate to the Okunoin Inner House (奥の院), where Iemitsu's spirit sleeps. There is no "Off limit" sign in front of the Koukamon Gate, however, no visitors are allowed to go any further than that gate. Even the priests working at Taiyuin have very limited opportunity to go through the gate. Yes, Okunoin Inner House is that sacred of a place!!!

This is a That's my world entry.

Bronze Statue Of Sacred Horse

Important note: New Friend Exchange

This entry is a part of activity that I joined through Sunflowerkat321's blog, who decided to play after visiting The Kitchen Bitch Ponder's blog.

I would modify the rule a little and here we go:
I promise to send something related to Japan to the 5 people who leave a comment on this post and who, in turn, promise to send something back to me. The rules are that you need to make the items personally and send within 2011. I will contact you by private message for your snail mail address.

If you only want to comment on this entry but don't want to join this activity, that's fair enough. Just leave a comment as you normally do. 

If you find it interesting, want to join the activity and to swap things between you and me, please express your intention in your comment.

Part two of "Sacred horse" and "Ema (絵馬)" in Shinto religion. Ema is a substitute of the real sacred horse that used to be donated to the shrine in the past. This bronze statue of the sacred horse shown in this photo was donated by an individual who must have been rich and serious about religion. If you want to be a shinto geek, please visit  Lina's blog in which I have described Ema in more detail.

If you are more into live horse action, here you go.

Click photo to know more about the performance

This is an entry for Show Me Japan Vol 1, Issue 12. If you want to see nice photos taken in Japan, don't forget to visit. 

And also for Black and White Weekend, Shadow Shot Sunday #142, Scenic Sunday 133.

             

Have a wonderful weekend.

Matsugamine Church

Matsugamine Catholic Church (松が峰教会) history goes back to 1888. The current Church, as shown in this photo, was designed by Max Hinder (Swiss) and founded in 1932. The Church complex comprises of three floors - on the ground floor there is a kindergarten and the second floor is for the Chapel (main worship hall).

This is the largest building made of Oya stone (大谷石) in the world. The stone is called that because it is quarried out at Oya town in Utsunomiya city. Since it's been over-mined, the quantity of the remaining stone is quite small...

As you can easily guess, this is photographed with my favorite lens, Sigma 15mm Diagonal Fisheye, attached to film camera, Nikon F801S.


This is a Sepia Scenes #119 and Alphabe-Thursday entry. Q is for quarry, quantity, and, quite.