Matsumoto and Nagano: Castle v. Temple
Trip Start
Mar 22, 2009
1
36
43
Trip End
May 03, 2009
Nagano,
Chubu,
Japan
Monday, April 27, 2009
Nagano is much nicer than I thought it would be--the main street is pleasantly uphill and decorated with handing flowers and contemporary buildings. The main site is the major Zen temple Zenkoji. The walk up is pretty devoid of people, but the actual shrine grounds are totally packed, way more than I expected. Turns out that this is one of the years (every 7) that the enshrined Buddha is connected to a wooden post placed in the courtyard by a rope of multicolored strings. This creates a 'direct' connection between the Buddha and pilgrims who touch the wooden pillar. Of course this means that there's a ton of people waiting for the chance to create this cosmic connection, which apparently is supposed to help you get a peaceful death. How...comforting?
I don't know why, but I'm always a little saddened by Buddhist related stories and events. One of the side attractions was a lantern. The story attached to it involved a raccoon that could turn itself human. So it did and wanted to visit Zenkoji, which he loved so much that he wanted to donate a lantern. But he was resting in an inn and decided to bathe in his racoon form. Of course, he was found out and had to flee and never realize his dream of donating the lantern. The head priest, who knew of the racoon's desire, decided to commission one in his honor, not that the raccoon would ever known the comfort of this gesture...which kinda depresses me.
Anyway, other than the racoon, a really pleasant afternoon at Zenkoji. Lots of multi-coloured streamers in wind, incense burning everything and tones of cosmic connections being made. I actually ended up on a line for blessings by a monk--he covered my head with some fabric, did some incantations and 5 seconds later, I'd been blessed...or baptised or whatever. I can't say anything really came to me form touching the wooden post or receiving a blessing, but the experiences were definitely unique. I'll remember the smell of incense during the blessing and warmth of the wood from the sun and everyone's body heat. All in all, not back for a quickie tour.
But I had a train to catch, back to Matsumoto, where I got my bag and ran to catch the Limited Express to Shinjuku. We passed Fuji on the ride but no sighting--hidden behind some other mountains, I suppose. At Shinjuku, which lies about 30 minutes train ride west of central, Imperial palace Tokyo, thigns got really, really stressful. Tons of people, which was fine except I had my massive suitcase and for whatever reason, there's a lack of elevators. And escalators sometimes only reach half way up a floor so you have to drag your bag up the remaining flights of stairs. All this because I needed to buy a Keio bus ticket to get to Fuji later.
But Shinjuku station has 2 part and I was in the wrong sub-terminal, and following signs for Keio (which also operates a train line) lead me to all the wrong offices. The first spoke no English and gave me a map without orientation; the second spoke English but gave me vague directions to the actual booking office and the office in question was a cubicled slice of Hell I'd like to forget. A waiting room of masked customers, two harried tellers at desks clacking away furiously on the computer and me, sweating bullets and so, so suddenly tired. I did manage to get my tickets without incidence, but Tokyo had already left and impression on me, which was not so good.
So I got to the hostel, which was not as advertised. A curtainless bed in the basement...I think I could've done better, but I was glad to have a roof and somewhere to eat and drink. And tomorrow, I get to see more shrines in Nikko and spend the afternoon sorting out crazy Tokyo.
-mike
