Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Day 4: Kominato

When last we left our heroes, they were going to sleep in the small coastal town of Emi.

On day four, we woke up early to take our turn in the hot bath on the roof. From the hot tub, we watched the sun rise as roosters called out all over the town below. You could get used to starting the day this way.



The ryokan provides yukata to wear after you get a bath, so when our time on the roof was up we got dressed and headed to breakfast.






Here's a pro-tip: If you're going to visit a ryokan on the coast of Japan, you better like seafood. Breakfast was another seafood feast, with different kinds of fish and seaweed.






On the walls inside the breakfast area, they had cloth prints of fish posted around. These are actual imprints of trophy fish that people have caught nearby. They make them by painting the fish with ink and then stamping them on the cloth.




After breakfast we walked through the town to the small train station to catch a ride to the nearby fishing village of Kominato.









From the train station, we walked a little ways through Kominato.



Lobster nets:





Lamp made from a real blowfish:



Finally we arrived at our destination, a temple called Kominato Yama. This is the temple of Nichiren, the founder of Nichiren Buddhism who was born in Kominato. This is a peaceful and beautiful temple that has kites (the birds, not the toys) flying low all around. Here we learned the phrase "Nam myoho renge kyo". Nichiren taught that you can achieve enlightenment by chanting this phrase.


Giant temple guardians inside the pillars of the gate above:





Basin for ritual hand and mouth washing at every temple:


Nichiren at age 12:






Then we took a long bus ride back to Tokyo through Chiba prefecture. Chiba is known for its rice and we saw a lot of rice fields along the way.




Azuki (red bean) Pepsi. It's actually good:


Back in Tokyo:

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