We spent this morning with 1001 Buddhas, 28 guardian
deities, and 2 gods. Rows upon rows of 5
foot tall, gold-leaf covered, wooden statues of Buddha and one giant Buddha
were guarded by statues of mythic deities and flanked at the ends by the gods
of Thunder and Wind in the Sanjusangen-do temple. Regrettably, we were not permitted to take
any photos inside. One hundred and
twenty-four of the 42-limbed statues were made in the 12th century;
the remaining 876 were made in the 13th century when the temple was
renovated, because you can never have too many Buddhas. They were extremely well preserved and very
daunting.
Since we seem to be spending a lot of time on trains, we
thought it would be appropriate to visit the train museum. It is a work in progress, but currently
houses many full sized steam engines dating from the early 1900’s, including a
working one and a turn table.
The museum has plans for expansion to include more modern
trains, including the Maglev train by 2016 – I guess we have to come back...
For a treat today we visited the Cacao Market. This is a store full of all things chocolate.
And that’s not the best part – Really – there is a secret door, with a secret
code to a quaint basement café where you can order delicious drinks and desserts
– chocolate, of course. So awesome!
To get back in the Japanese mood, our last stop of the day
was at the Maiko Museum. Here we saw
videos of the Maiko dancers and Geisha, and displays of various kimonos and
parts of their costumes. We even got to
pose for a picture with a real Maiko dancer.
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