What I did on my summer vacation

Yes,  I admit I love traveling and  one place I always wanted to go to was Japan. Well it's taken a lifetime to finally get up the money to go there. Thanks to AMEX Starwood card, we were able to go first class on the plane and at the hotels too. And of course as a gardener, I was looking for live growing things

 

 






Tokyo is the capital,of Japan and, with 13.23 million, it's the  most populous city in the world.  And Japan uses all its space,the flats are for houses and horticulture, and the hills are preserved for its lovely vegetation. The first thing I noticed, besides the wonderful cleanliness,is the quiet.  Such a big city and not very much noise. They utilize the public transport and are always polite,quiet and reserved.  We visited the Meiji shine (http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3002.html )and the Sensoshi Temple ( http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3001.html). What I noticed about the trees  were that they were very round shaped and chartreuse green.


Senso-ji Temple 
 The legend says that in the year 628, two brothers fished a statue , the goddess of mercy, out of the Sumida River, and even though they put the statue back into the river, it always returned to them. Consequently, Senso-ji was built nearby for the goddess of Kannon. The temple was completed in 645, making it Tokyo's oldest temple.

 During World War II, the temple was bombed and destroyed. It was rebuilt later and is a symbol of rebirth and peace to the Japanese people. In the courtyard there is a tree that was hit by a bomb in the air raids, and it had regrown in the husk of the old tree and is a similar symbol to the temple itself.

 

 

 

 It is believed that Japanese deities inhabit certain natural objects such as rocks and trees. Most shrines in Japan are located in forests known as “Chinju-no-mori” (guardian trees). Because they are sacred, these wooded areas have been preserved, so there are many such trees that are hundreds of years old. These include cedars, camphor trees, and Japanese tabunoki trees. A giant sacred tree is called a “Goshinboku” and is marked by a shimenawa or sacred rope. Regardless of where you are from, when you stand in front of such giant trees, you can’t help but feel a sense of awe. In Japan, it is believed that deities use these Goshiboku as landmarks when visiting on festival days . We arrived just in time for the yearly festival.

Yes, the azaleas were in bloom

Sanja Matsuri is a religious celebration and cultural event featuring three  large mikoshi that appear on the third and final day of the festival. These three elaborate, black lacquered-wood shrines are built to act as miniature, portable versions of  Shrine. Decorated with gold sculptures and painted with gold leaf each one weighs approximately one ton and costs $390,760 to construct.  respresendint the three men who founded the temple, they are carried on four long poles lashed together with ropes, and each needs approximately 40 people dispersed evenly to safely carry them. Throughout the day, a total of about 500 people participate in carrying each shrine.  We were there on  Saturday,  when approximately 100 mikoshi from the 44  districts were paraded through the street by the young men mostly and  blessed by the Shinto priests.I was able to tolerate this huge orowded event because of these amazing respectful people.



The next activity was a visit to the Meiji Shrine.
The Shino Shrine  is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife


 

After the emperor's death in 1912,. An iris garden in an area of Tokyo where Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken had been known to visit was chosen as the building's location.Construction began in 1915, and the shrine was primarily of Japanese cypress and copper. It was formally dedicated in 1920, completed in 1921, and its grounds officially finished by 1926. The original building was destroyed during the WWII. The rebuild completed in October, 1958.


 The forest is one of trees that I don't recognize. The green was electric !!
 Meiji Shrine is located in a forest that covers an area of 700,000 square-meters (about 175 acres). This area is covered by an evergreen forest that consists of 120,000 trees of 365 different species, which were donated by people from all parts of Japan when the shrine was established. The forest is visited by many as a recreation and relaxation area in the center of Tokyo

People were wearing their kimono...Sunday dress

   

a wedding

Goshinboku

camphor tree who knew they were so lovely

dragon fruit

ginkgo

pansies

Keep tuned for the next installment of this adventure!