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?

I hope that was a cut and paste.

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.


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