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Japan Pilgrimage October 13-14, 2026

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On this trip, we went with 20+ people from our temple and perhaps 60 or so from other Hawaii temples to see some of the most important sites for Buddhists of the Soto Zen sect. Our bishop and several ministers had made arrangements for us to get special access to five different temples. Additionally, they had engaged a tour company to not only transport us between the temples but to take us to some popular tourist sites along the way.  We flew from Honolulu to Nagoya on a JAL Dreamliner. The service was really good and the 787 was spacious, even in coach. On the flight I watched Godzilla Minus One. I have to say that it’s the best Godzilla movie ever except for maybe when Godzilla Minus Zero comes out. It wasn’t just a guy in a rubber suit stomping Tokyo. I mean it was still scary to see the big guy take a bite out of the Wako department store in Ginza, but there were also real characters with complex, real emotions. And of course when the hero needed an airplane, it had to be a Sh...
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Japan Pilgrimage October 15, 2026

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 The Strings Hotel Nagoya seems to do a lot of weddings as there was a chapel and a wedding hall where we had breakfast. We were soon underway and made our first rest stop where I got some dorayaki for the road. I also got my first “nihongo jyouzu” (your Japanese is good) of the trip here. It was interesting that there were highway construction notices posted in the men’s room. There were a lot of trucks in the parking lot, so that kinda makes sense. We finally arrived at Eihiji -  a monastery founded by Zen Master Dogen 782 years ago after returning from his studies in China. We had a vegetarian meal in one of the halls there, and we ate more or less as the monks do. There were lots of instructions relating to how to hold the bowls and chopsticks, and how we should eat silently. We were to appreciate the food and consider how it came to us. I had some difficulty with that last part, as I wasn’t sure what some of the dishes were! But they were all delicious and fresh tasting. ...
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Japan Pilgrimage October 16, 2026

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 Still jetlagged, we got up at 4:00am and walked to Oyama Shrine in the dark. Passed an early morning walker who greeted us with an おはようございます(good morning). The streets were otherwise empty and made for some good liminal space photography. We kept quiet because there were likely people still asleep in the residences above the shops. Oyama shrine is famous for the stained glass in its gate, but they don’t run the lights all night. On the way back we stopped for some snacks for the day ahead at a Lawson convenience store (for which I learned the correct pronunciation is ローソン, not ラーソン). Stone lantern in front of Oyama Shrine. Early morning Kanazawa Torii gate in front of the Dutch-designed main gate. Main worship hall After breakfast in the hotel, it was back on the bus and on our way to Shirakawa Go, a group of mountain villages that is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s famous for its gassho-zukuri (合掌造り) houses which are thatched multi-story wooden buildings with sides ...
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Japan Pilgrimage October 17, 2026

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 In the morning we were back on the bus, on the road to Nagaoka. First stop was the glass museum in Toyama. I was expecting a tourist trap; boy was I wrong. This museum is in a city building called Toyama Kirari (meaning sparkle) designed by world famous architect Kengo Kuma. The building is shared by the glass museum, the public library, a bank, and several community spaces. Three of the six floors are used by the bright and spacious library. The main glass exhibit hall prohibits photography and touching, and the staff watches visitors like hawks. Do not put your toe over any black lines! However, the works of glass art are incredible. From the shape, texture, and colors of the works, you can tell that the artists put in countless hours planning and working the glass. They also have a scaled down Chihuly exhibit that looks very much like his works in Seattle.   Toyama Kirari interior Chihuly exhibit Toyama Library On the ground floor there is a kinetic sculpture called 森...
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Japan Pilgrimage October 18, 2026

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  For breakfast at the hotel they were serving “Isoroku Curry”, named after Nagaoka’s native son and architect of the Pearl Harbor raid, Admiral Yamamoto. It was very spicy - said to give sailors stamina to endure the oppressive summer heat.  Our first stop of the day was Ryukokuji - a temple associated with the bishop’s family. We arrived at the Kannon Hall -  a rare-for-Japan Indian styled blue and green building. Inside we were told of the statues housed there and how they were donated by Japanese-Americans from Hawaii, after the war. Then on to the main hall, and its impressive ranma (transom panel) carvings by Ishikawa Uncho. The most spectacular of which shows a Zen master using an oar to knock a monk overboard in order to shock him into enlightenment. This carving spans two panels and extends outside of the frame in places. The waves are reminiscent of the claw-like waves of Hokusai’s wood block print “The Great Wave”. I did some research (asked Chat GPT) and it i...
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