B Robson wrote:

> Let's stop with the boring lists of places. If you can't mention ONE place that is worthy of note and why then please just shut up.

Okay, Ikegami Honmonji.  It's the place where Nichiren died and is the 
original temple of the Nichiren sect.  An interesting reliquary with a 
bust of Nichiren carved by his disciples, plus an altar carved by his 
students.  The cemetery is where the Mito clan put all of their 
almost-Tokugawa relatives as well as the famous people the Tokugawa kept 
hostage.  The stone steps were built by Kato Kiyomasa around 1600 and it 
has a five-story pagoda that was built in the 1660s.  From the monks 
grave area you can see Fuji-san in the mornings and there is an overlook 
close to the main stairs that gives you a view from Shinagawa to 
Yokohama (which is why it was an observation post during WWII).  The 
steps end at a very large stone square that used to be the boat dock you 
had to go to to reach the temple (it's now about 7km inland).  Famous 
graves include Koda Rohan, Mori Ranmaru, all the members of the famous 
Kato sword fighting family, Rikidozan, a whole bunch of prime ministers, 
all of the female members of the eighth shoguns family, and a bunch of 
famous politicians, actors, cinematographers, authors of the Bakumatsu 
era to the present ... as well as the grave containing the remains of 
the enlisted crew of the U.S.S. Oneida, the Civil War era wooden 
sidewheel battleship whose captain was second in command to David 
Farragut -- ran the blockade at St. Petersburg, broke the chain across 
the Mississippi, and captured the ironclad C.S.S. Tennessee at the 
Battle of Mobile Bay only to be stationed in Japan and cut in half by a 
P&O steamer which failed to yield the right of way on the evening of 28 
January 1870.  The P&O ship left the scene of the accident to make 
Yokohama on schedule allowing the Oneida to sink with all officers and 
NCOs still aboard.

Your turn.

CL