B Robson wrote:
> CL wrote:
>> 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.
> 
> reliquary? You swallow a dictionary?

No, I'm multisyllabic.  I know, it's kind of embarrassing to say that in 
public and my family doesn't like talking about it, but there you are. 
It's out in the open now and I'll just have to live with the consequences.

> I hope that was a cut and paste.

No, it wasn't.  Some of us know big whole chunks about small things.  I 
can do the same rap on most of the temples in Nara, including 
comparisons of the architecture and the statuary.  During trips with 
friends and business associates, I've had priests come out and tell me 
that they don't know many Japanese who can do as well and I've had 
Japanese ask us if they can join my little tour.  It's also occasionally 
possible to get invited back to the kura to view the temple treasures if 
the right priest overhears you.

> Every rock in Tokyo has history. Some samurai pissed on it or sat on it 
> or Basho wrote 42 haiku about it, doesn't make Tokyo a great city.

Tokyo isn't a great city.  It is a dumpy little military outpost that 
grew.  Fortunately, some really great people started a lot of the little 
village centers that later grew outward and merged in to the the big 
pile that became modern Tokyo.  There are a lot of colorful areas and a 
lot more dross separating them.  The only way to find out about them is 
to look.  Edo had 1,000 samurai who needed people to service them for 
every tradesman.  The rest of Japan had between 100 and 1,000 tradesmen 
for every samurai and the difference is still apparent today.  I work a 
lot with people in the government.  First they give up their 
imagination, then their reproductive organs.  But they get paid well for 
not being able to think.

> Kyomizudera is fucking awesome. It's massive but unfortunately the sun 
> is in the wrong place so get there early morning. Apparently some famous 
> priest did something interesting there and his disciples did something 
> too, which makes the history of the place very historic (I don't think 
> it was built in the very interesting historic seventh century period). 
> It's got some dead people too, which makes it even more historic. 

I go to Kiyomizudera for the pottery street, too.  We've bought a number 
of custom made dishes, tokkuri, an ochoko there.  We're friendly with 
one of the shops who has an in with one of the restaurants up on Kibune. 
  Its one with the big wood deck sitting area out over the river close 
to Kibune-jinja.  He gets us seats even when they say they're fully 
booked.

Kiyomizudera is nice, but Kyoto has a lot more temples that are 
interesting.  I prefer Arashiyama or the walk between Ginkauji and 
Nanzenji.  I had an assignment in Kyoto during the Shinsen-gumi craze 
last year and there were a number of places you couldn't get close to 
because there was another four busloads of junior high students crowding 
around a rock that had some inscription about one incident or another on 
it.  Seemed as though every subway station had it's exits marked 
according to which Shinsen-gumi related site was closest.  So much for 
the 13th Century ...

> There's a Starbucks near Yasaka Jinja so you can walk back that way for 
> a afternoon cuppa.

When I have time, there is a very nice minshuku about three roads back 
from the road that runs straight from Shijo-eki to the front of 
Yasaka-jinja.  It's a bed, a bath, and breakfast for about Yen 8,000. 
We also go there sometimes to go to Kabuki-za, but its always the 
Nakamuras at that particular one (not as much variety as the ones in 
Tokyo and Osaka).  Sorry to hear that Starbucks pollution has reached 
the neighborhood.

CL