Shitennō-ji Temple and Tennoji Zoo (5-8-11)

This is going to be another delayed and picture-heavy post. On May 8th, Lindzi, Meaghan and I went to Shitennō-ji Temple and then Tennoji zoo. This post is about the temple; I'll post later about the zoo.

This is Shitenno-ji Temple:

And here you can read what Wikipedia has to say about it. The temple grounds were interesting, very standard-style Japanese architecture. The shrine is very, very old, though most of the buildings have been replaced with concrete replicas. Still, it's a very historical site and there was a lot to look at. We did get a chance to go inside various buildings on the grounds, but again we were not allowed to take pictures of the giant Buddhas or anything inside the buildings. You actually can climb the stairs and go to the top of the temple itself, and each landing on the way up is filled with tiny, golden statues of Buddha. It's quite a sight. The view from the top is pretty decent, too, especially on a nice day like this one was.

We walked there from the train station and we passed a cemetery. I love Japanese cemeteries - there is a certain sentimental value to them because they really fascinated me as a child on Okinawa - and I wanted to snap a photo of it, but there was a wall. So I just poked my camera up over the wall and hit the button and here we go:

It was an absolutely stunning day; it was warm but by this point in the year it wasn't as hot and humid as it would get. We approached the temple grounds and I could see the temple itself peeking up over the walls:

I was pleased to see shrine water :D

Here's a shot of one of the side entrances to the inner grounds (though it and all other entrances but one were closed):

Another side entrance is guarded by these fierce warriors:

According to Wikipedia, these guys "are two wrath-filled and muscular guardians of the Buddha, standing today at the entrance of many Buddhist temples in China, Japan and Korea in the form of frightening wrestler-like statues. They are manifestations of the Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi protector deity and are part of the Mahayana pantheon. According to Japanese tradition, they travelled with the historical Buddha to protect him."

This is the entrance that they guard, though it is a bit hard to see them in the shadows:

Again, the weather was glorious that day.

Also on the grounds was the world's most pointless bridge, and it's just so adorable I had to get a shot of it:

One of the external gates had these gold-coloured wheels on them, and they would spin (in the wind? I am really not sure). I got a video of the spinning wheel, but I accidentally recorded it sideways. Still, you can get the point:

Here's our favourite Buddha:

One of the things I like about Buddhist shrines and temples is that they all smell thickly of incense; there's pots in various places where people can say a prayer and put a stick of incense in. The incense is sold on the grounds and is fairly cheap (￥10-20 if I recall correctly, per stick). Here's a pot of incense burning - it smells sweet and musky:

We went into the inner grounds and walked the corridors:

There are lanterns suspended from the ceiling:

The rocks are kept in pattern, like many rock gardens, temples and shrines (both Buddhist and Shinto):

I named this guy Bob:

Say hi, Bob!

The dragon guards a well, and the ceiling of the little well-hut is decorated with another vicious beast:

Down the well!

We exited and walked around the grounds more, here's some random shots of that:

Outside there was a pond and there was a ton of adorable lil turtles in it!

Here's a shot of the temple grounds from a distance:

More cemetery:

And Japan's FINEST "Liquor Shop" which we saw heading back to the train station:

Later in the day we went to Tennoji Zoo, and I'll get that up soon. I guess this has become more of a "photo blog" than an actual blog, but I still hope it's somewhat interesting.

Until next time, ciao!