Another Sunny Day

I sure have been blessed with beautiful weather on this trip.
Today was really nice and I paid visits to 4 more lovely temples. They were all kind enough to be mostly on flat land so I didn't need to resort to any mountaineering skills. Although, I have looked at tomorrow's agenda and it appears I will need to put them to good use on tomorrow's walk.

Temple 77, Doryuji was kind of a fun place to visit. The lady at the temple office was really friendly and gave me some tasty treats as osetai. There was a long line of beautiful statues lining the walkway as you entered the main gate. There are so many different statues and figures that I wonder how anyone can keep them all straight. I would love to understand the meaning behind each one. They are always decorated with little pieces of jewelry, and people place coins and food before each one. My favorite of all so far was the little sleeping guy wearing the red and white hat with his hands folded and his eyes closed. He is adorable and brightened my morning as I entered temple 77.

Temple 78 had the most gorgeous pond and gardens. I would love to have a garden pond like that one, especially with the giant koi splashing around in it. It seems like all of the trees have been trained to grow into fascinating decorative shapes, like giant Bonsai trees.

Temple 79 had a bright red entry gate, the typical Shinto Shrine gate. It's interesting how there are so often objects that represent both Shintoism and Buddhism side by side on the temple grounds. I would love one of those gates at the end of my driveway but I suppose it would look a bit out of place in Alaska.

I was pretty worn out when I reached temple 80. But it was a particularly interesting place. The walkway leading to the main hall was a gorgeous walk through a small forest. There were some very odd statues of men with big round bellies and long beards all
Lined up in one spot. Of course I had to wonder their purpose and meaning. There were a couple of large gold statues as well. I'm sure one could write an entire book about the history of each of these magical temples.

I took the train back to my hotel and will reverse the trip and continue to temple 81 in the morning. It will be a day of serious mountain climbing.