Real time: July 14 at 6:25 AM.
It has rained every day but one since we got here. Not hard rains. Sort of Seattle rainy. We were walking to our first attraction yesterday morning and it started to rain again. As soon as we came to a 7/11 we went in and I got us umbrellas. The “deluxe” 4-dollar plastic umbrella. Deluxe was the only kind they had. Every time you go in anywhere you stash your umbrella in a rack and put your shoes in another. As luck would have it – my “deluxe” plastic umbrella vanished. So, I just took another non-deluxe plastic umbrella. All plastic umbrellas sort of look alike.
We tromped around all day looking at various temples. (and thousands of shops crammed with trinkets.) The first temple we saw was really stunning. No photos allowed. You couldn’t even sneak a picture – they snatch your camera. It has 1,000 more or less identical 7 foot gilded wood Buddha statues and one really big one. About 100 of them date from 1160 and the rest from 1200-1300. They are in a large wooden temple. All it would take is one misplaced cigarette butt, firecracker, lightening strike, or tiny earthquake to end it. Amazing that it is still standing. No pictures, but in the best Buddhist/Catholic tradition you could light a candle. Did that.
We also saw several temples that didn’t seem to get any western visitors. Later discovered that one of them was the Japanese Tomb of the Unknown from WW2. Did big purple joss sticks there.
And, I think the other was just a very old cemetery were some famous Japanese were buried. (Tossed one yen coins at dragon here.) That is what happens when you slip off the regular tourism route.
The funniest thing was at the last place we went to – yet another famous old (750 something) temple complex. We decide that we are tired and have seen rather enough temples for one day and don’t want to spend about 8 dollars each to go in to the main temple – but for a 100-yen – we could go see another smaller temple. We spring for that. Take off our shoes, park our umbrellas (this is when I lose my “deluxe” umbrella) and go in. “In” is downstairs. The guy tells us to hang onto the rail. Well, after about 6 steps it is total dark. We are in a pitch-black rat maze with no shoes. Surprise, western person who can not read the signs!