NEWS OF TRAVEL JAPAN

My wife invited me to see the Fire-walking-ritual, “hi-watari” in Japanese, at Suma-dera Temple in Hyogo prefecture. According to her explanation a fire-walking-ritual is a comprehensive ritual of showing will-power by walking on fire by practicing Buddhists who are called “shugenja” in Japanese. They are practicing under Buddhism and ancient Shintoism. In addition, it is for people’s peace and affluence by will-power. Why do practicing Buddhists and normal people walk on fire? Incredible but interesting! It sounded like fun. So I made up my mind to accept her proposal. The fire-walking-ritual in Sumadera Temple It is held in the morning on November 23rd every year. It is fine today but a little bit cold. A lot of people already surrounded the field of the fire-walking-ritual and the venue was filled with people talking. We hastened to sit down on steal pipe seats. The field was encircled by rope ( an encircled field by rope is called “kekkai” in Japanese, it means a sacred field

In the early morning the air in front of a big “torii”, a gate of a shrine, was chilly. I bowed toward the direction of a long wide way between tall trees, and I began to walk slowly along the way. There were almost no people and little sound except for bird-calls. I felt that the trees were inhaling and exhaling in the silence of faint light. Those made my body become very sound and I thought; “ I seem to be at Ise Shrine ( the most famous shrine )”. However the sudden big sound of a running electric train hit me and made me remember the true place; “ here is Meiji Shrine”.   Meiji Shrine Meiji Shirine is neighboring the Yamanote-line of JR and is located in the big west area of Harajuku Station. The size of the land is 700 thousand meters square, it is one and a half times bigger than Tokyo Disney Land. It was constructed in 1920 and enshrines Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. As I walked toward the sanctuary on the long way, my mind became honest thanks to goodness of nature.

When autumn falls deeply my wife and I always think we have to look at red maple leaves. The best urban area to see red maple leaves in Japan is Kyoto, Tofuku-ji Temple is one of great red leaf places in Kyoto. Because the temple has the utmost red maple leaves scenes like nothing in other urban cities in Japan. After getting out from Tofuku-ji Station of Keihan railways, the way to the temple has good aspects in a pavement. Over the short shopping-street, each time you turn right or left at corners of the pavement, each scene from the pavement gradationally changes. Firstly, ochre yellow barriers including black roof tiles and stone blocks, secondly, road trees with yellow leaves, and finally, long banks covered with green grass and moss. Those raised our appetite for red maple leaves. Tofuku-ji Temple A wonderful scene of Tofuku-ji Temple is a wide view from the view point of “Tsu-ten-kyo” meaning “the bridge to heaven” in Japanese, at an upper place on a path for looking at red

When I cross over to an island I always become a little bit excited. It may introduce the imagination of encountering something new to me. Over Akashi strait from Kobe is Awaji Island, we can cross over to the island by a car via the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge. The length of the Akashi-Kaikyo is 3,911m, which is the longest bridge over a strait in the world, is sufficient for enjoying driving on the bridge. The beauty of the precision of the architecture and the panoramic sight from the top of the bridge( its height is 298m) including some ships, wavelets of the sea, blue water of the strait and the blue sky, those welcomed my wife and me. After arriving on the island we looked back at the start-point land from the Awaji Service Area where we recovered from driving tiredness. With receiving the sea breeze, when I saw the view of the opposite shore including a mountain range, many buildings, the Akashi Strait and Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, I felt the minuteness of Japan from the scene. The

In Nara City is a beautiful temple. If you make the effort to visit Todaiji Temple in Nara City, I recommend visiting Yakushiji Temple in the same city. When the area around Todaiji Temple and The Nara Park saw thousands of foreign travelers, but, the number of foreign travelers visiting Yakushiji Temple was much fewer than Todaiji Temple. Yakushiji Temple, which is one of the world heritage sites, is another wonderful place which is known next to nothing by them but popular for Japanese people. Yakushiji Temple doesn’t give you an experience of that “you visited and saw it”, but if you visit there, you will feel the emotionality of Yakushiji Temple and it will enable you to get a time slip from ancient times and the future. You are in for a treat. Yakushiji Temple To describe Yakushiji Temple in a word, it is a temple of beauty like a jewel box. All Buddhist statues in Yakushiji Temple are very beautiful with intelligence. When I saw the swinging-hip Buddhist statues t