#terusaki

[borrowedscenery]

An artificial Mt.Fuji next to Ono Terusaki shrine in Iriya, Tokyo.

Starting in the Edo period, religious groups known as Fujikō built small-scale replicas of Mount Fuji for disciples who could not make pilgrimages to the mountain. Many of these mounds, called fujizuka, can still be found around the Tokyo metropolitan area.

[shoujopsyche]

[toorusized]

@obliqueophidian

I couldn’t decide which was cuter, the zoom in or the full-sized image.

[todayintokyo]

Walking through Shitaya, a neighbourhood in eastern Tokyo. The torii and foxes are at Ono Terusaki Jinja (小野照崎神社), known as a shrine for actors and scholars.

[walkingbikingjapan]

Summer ritual in Ono Terusaki Shrine. #japantravel #tokyo #shrine #summer #ritual (at 小野照崎神社)

[cwebberphotography]

  Living in a mouldy basement in Toronto you can have all sorts of theories on what is life. Is it a computer or a hologram is anything really here? Atoms living and dying popping in and out of existence and all in our minds. Not until I walking in the ancient city of Bhaktapur, Nepal and see a goat stop and look around and yawn did all these theories go out the window. Now in Tokyo it’s hard not to see this place as a computer chip when you’re 450 metres above.

Being in the Tokyo Sky Tree, 450 meters up gives me an idea of how high I was in Nepal at 2500 meters.

I spent the day alone and got a message from Sho saying come to Asukasa. Some friends and other travelors from San Fransisco were waiting there. He gave me the address of 29-15-2 so I googled it and started walking.  After arriving at Toy Dogs, real name Kosuke, we all went for monjya, Japanese pancake, then to sentō.

Sentō is the communal bath house where men and women come to bathe and sit in hot tubs. Eight of us merged with the locals and sat naked in the steam room, hot tub and sauna. I got lots of stories of people who grew up with no bathrooms. Not long ago most people had to come here for their daily cleaning.

Going home I was very glad I learned to skateboard as a kid because that was my transportation. The streets are wide and smooth and no one was driving.

In the morning I biked for about half an hour until I didn’t know where I was, then gave myself some time to try and find my way back on my own. Once I gave that up I used Google maps to help. I was 2.5 km away and came home to see Justin was still sleeping. Then I went to the Ono Terusaki shrine and sat for 30 minutes. People came and went on their way to work and bowed and clapped twice, or rang a bell or dragged a heavy knotted rope across some chime.

Then I went and bought a sandwich and two pastries and brought them home to make coffee while Justin still slept.

He woke up and we cleaned the apartment and took the train to Yokohama.

Tokyo is so clean it looks like it’s power washed every night and Yokohama every other night. Like it sprang up out of nowhere, ancient city brand new.

I waited around downtown for him to retrieve his bike and then we did some window shopping. Then he brought me to the station and he left on his bike but we both forgot to give me the key to Shos apartment. I made it to my station and then found my way back to the place. Completely out of money and only wearing a t-shirt as the sun went down it got cold. The only cash I had was on my metro card so I bought some food and beer from the Family Mart and sat down in front of his door to wait.

After sho came home we went to the store again and did laundry and went to sentō. This one was busy again and after washing we went into the hot tub, the warm tub, and then the cold water tub. Then back around again. This time I tried the electric bath where two volts are shot out from two sides of the bath. At first its painful and feels like a million tiny fists pounding all around you and on your limbs it’s even more painful.

I didn’t have any plans on Thursday and actually had a messenger dream the night before. The sun was out and the day was young. Totally unprepared other than years of experience riding in traffic I took my camera, 10 dollars and my phone and followed Sho to downtown Tokyo for work. The streets are smooth and friendly here. Nothing like the pot holes and street car tracks in Toronto.

We went straight into the heart of the city to wait. We passed the Emperor’s Palace and the financial district. I used the washroom at the 7/11 and it had like everywhere else, a heated seat, bidet, up to 13 buttons, including one for white noise but nowhere to dry your hands after you wash.

Sho doesn’t need a lock in Tokyo because no one would ever steal a bike. The buildings mostly look the same as Toronto, the people are all in black suits, they are called salary men and women by messengers. We do one pickup and drop off at a time then get a rush call from a theatre to a TV station. It has to be there in under 10 minutes and its about 4 k.m. away. That was fun, we do it a second time several hours later and it was not as fun. There are some good hills here, we found a few of them, up and down.

Several areas have cross walk scrambles where people can walk from all angles. Sho barely slows down to slice through them and I’m right on his wheel to make sure I don’t lose him forever.

I get to meet his co-workers one at a time and see all the other messengers working. Most of them dress like the most professional Toronto couriers. They have expensive clean bikes and jerseys, everything here looks expensive and clean.

We take a break to walk along the cherry blossom parks, we stop for lunch with Kosuke at a salad bar. Then sit and wait with coffees. Overall Sho estimates we did 50 km by mid-day.  He works 9-7, and around 3 p.m. I was ready to go home but the thought of navigating Tokyo alone was worse than finishing the day on the road.

Tokyo Shortcut Living in a mouldy basement in Toronto you can have all sorts of theories on what is life.

[matarammap]

#Travel Real Mt. Fuji Within Tokyo?! - Five Reasons To Instruct To Ono Terusaki Shrine https://t.co/jIzGGH1Hx7 #Tokyo #Japan https://t.co/4tCtv3nLZc

[walkingbikingjapan]

Mt. Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan.  3776-meter-high mountain is in Shizuoka prefecture and you can see it on your right side when you take Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto.  And we Japanese just love this mountain from the ancient times.

Mt. Fuji from Shinkansen

Mt. Fuji of Hokusai’s Woodblock Print in The Sumida Hokusai Museum

And this mountain is religously sacred.  During Edo Era of 18th century, people in current Tokyo started to worship Mt. Fuji and they built miniature Mt. Fuji inside shrines in Tokyo.  The miniature Mt. Fuji is called Fujizuka and sometimes they were made of molten rocks of real Mt. Fuji.

Fujizuka in Shitaya Sakamoto in Tokyo is one of those Fujizuka in Edo Era which was built in 1839.  As I wrote in my yesterday’s post, every year on June 30th and July 1st, this miniature mountain becomes open to the public and you can climb the miniature Mt. Fuji.

Sengen Jinja Shrine in Ono Terusaki Shrine

  This is how people climb the miniature Mt. Fuji.

By Thirteen-fri – 投稿者自身による作品, CC 表示-継承 4.0, Link

The religious faith of Mt. Fuji was started by Kakugyo Hasegawa during the 16th century.   This religion was succeeded by several generations during Edo Era.  In 1733, Miroku Jikigyo, a person of religion, went into Mt. Fuji and started fast in order to save the public from the famine which led him to death 35 days later.

Fujizuka in Kaizo-ji Temple where I also visited is believed to have parts of bones of Miroku.

Fujizuka (miniature Mt. Fuji) in Kaizo-ji Temple

Kaizo-ji Temple

Fujizuka in Kaizo-ji Temple

Fujizuka in Kaizo-ji Temple

Kaizo-ji Temple

For More Information on Kaizo-ji Temple

Address: 25-10 Mukogaoka 2-chome, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo

Mt. Fuji in Tokyo. #mountfuji #japantravel #tokyo #shrine #temple Mt. Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan.  3776-meter-high mountain is in Shizuoka prefecture and you can see it on your right side when you take Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto.  

[matarammap]

#Travel Real Mt. Fuji Within Tokyo?! - Five Reasons To Instruct To Ono Terusaki Shrine https://t.co/PeT6BMDNKB #Tokyo #Japan https://t.co/sY8BBMwoMo

[daisykurosakitasuku]

[fabul0us-n0ra]

[walkingbikingjapan]

A long line of climbers of “Mt. Fuji” in Ono Terusaki Shrine. There is a small Mt. Fuji inside the shrine which is open for the public only on 30 June and 1st July. #japantravel #tokyo #shrine #mtfuji #fujisan #ritual (at 小野照崎神社)

[alguiensinconcretar]