Friday, November 28, 2014

The beauty of Kokeizan and Eihoji temple in two different seasons...

It's my second visit to Kokeizan of Tajimi. I visited there to years back after a spring season when I could find calm greenly atmosphere throughout the area. There were no much visitors there and it was some special day at the temple. We saw the Zen monks and their chantings. It  attracted me since I am seeing such a number of monks in their meditation for the first time.

After that I read about the Zen temple Eihoji at Kokeizan. Eihoji temple as established in 1313 and is a learning school for Zen Buddhists. Then, it might be some practice sessions for the monks that we had seen there at that day. 

Zen monks in meditation.
It was just after the spring of 2012 : 

The temple was under repair when we went there that time and couldn't see it at all. In-front of the temple, there is a pond with Koi fishes and a bridge above it connecting the temple and the garden. The garden has every Japanese trees adorning its beauty. 

The bridge over the pond in-front o the Eihoji temple

 There were some autumn trees that have started changing its colour, and some sakura trees with flowers also. Behind the garden was a river with calm banks here e spend some hours. It was really a wonderful experience spending time at the bank of the river sitting quietly looking at the flowing water, hearing the sound of its flow.

The river behind the temple's park





Some garden views...
The giant ginko tree





Now in 2014's autumn : 
It's after two years that I  again made a visit to Kokeizan. I love autumn because o the colourful world it creates around us. Everywhere looks yellow, orange, red and its variations along with the greenish texture. It as a Sunday morning when we reached Kokeizan. Its reddish all around with Autumn trees. The new appearance of the Eihoji temple had invited a large number of visitors over there. Some wedding ceremony was going on there.  



The gate of the shrine near the temple.

Beautifully swept yard of the shrine.

Eihoji temple - a vie from the top.

Eihoji temple.
 The Koi fishes were feed by children and they both looks happy. Seems like fishes are enjoying the autumn.
Koi fishes in the garden pond
  The temple which was under repair during my last visit is now opened for the visitors. This time, we have a Japanese friend accompanying us. She always try to convey the writing we found there and talked about the things we found there.







Autumn colours in the garden.



The large ginko (Iccho)tree that we could see at the front yard is more than hundreds of years aged. But instead of the other Ginkos there, the giant one is still having green leaves the most.

Then we went through small path for the pedestrians running between the small forest of the mountain top. There were a lot of trees with name-boards. Also a small portion of bamboo forest is also found inside it. There are a number of small Buddha statues on the sides of the path.

Bamboo forest.
As we reached the top of it, there as a white statue over there beside the road. It is a monument built for the reminiscence of the warriors ho lost their lives in the world war.
Statue near Kokeizan.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Momiji festival at Soji park, Toki

                I went to Sogi park on a cold Sunday evening with a friend's family to see the Momiji festival(lighting). It was really crowded as we reached there. The parking areas were completely filled and we have to park the car at some distance of 10 minutes walk from the park. Walking in the cold as really dreadful as I am going to have my first winter in Japan very soon. 

                 
                 The cold breeze of that day was intolerable. The park had some 200 yen entry ticket per person and there were a lot of maple trees illuminated with different colors.










                   The water bodies around makes a clear reflection of the red trees full of lighting. We walked around for a long time. There was a girl dressed up in Japanese traditional dressings like Kimono and an umbrella. And some people started covering her for taking photos. Our friend started flute down a tree and we enjoyed and waited nearby.


            We saw some people gathered around the fire and enjoying their food.The cold made me jealous about them, I also felt like joining them as I couldn't tolerate the cold anymore.

 
                  After that, we bought some soup which gave a relief from the cold for sometime. After that we spend some more time around the park and returned.