Franziskaner

From the top of Tokyo tower the city looks like a massive living metal and concrete carpet, stretching literally as far as the eye can see. Tokyo barely beats out New York City on population by a few hundred thousand, but the sheer size of the city is shocking to me. It is sunset, and I've spent the day in the Hama-rikyu gardens and at the Zojoji Temple. Both are beautiful places, and worthy of your attention if visiting Tokyo.

Hama-rikyu is what remains of a fortified retreat first created by the Tokugawa era Shogunate. The land borders Tokyo Bay, and has three separate tea houses, duck hunting ponds, gardens, and a landscape that changes depending on if the tide is in our out. The central tea house sits on an island in the artificial pond. Its tatami mats and rice paper screen architecture is exactly how you would imagine a Japanese tea house looking. I spent about four hours there watching the scenery change.

The Zojoji Temple is a large Buddhist temple complex put together by a fundamentalist sect in the late twelfth century. Located fewer than three hundred meters from Tokyo Tower, the largest radio tower and possibly the tallest building in the city, it is a perfect representation of the Japanese attitude of respecting and honoring the past while pushing forward into the future. There are several temples in the complex, and many shrines, but the most interesting part of the Zojoji temple is barely advertised and nearly impossible to see. Buried on the premises in a private cemetery are the graves of six of the fifteen Tokugawa shoguns. At the rise of the Tokugawa shogunate, the Shogun adopted the Jodoshu school of Buddhism, and the Zojoji temple became the Tokugawa family temple. The graves are considered to be national treasures, and only certain people are allowed in to see them, which was a huge disappointment.

I consoled myself by paying the ten bucks to ride to the top of Tokyo tower, where I borrowed some one's binoculars and got a birds eye view of the tombs. Not the same, but I got my history on anyway.

I forgot to mention the shrine for unborn children, which graces the north side of the complex. Thousands of small statues of children line the road heading east to west past the temple, and many have been decorated by worshipers with small pieces of clothing or toys. Looking at them, I found myself compelled to drop a few coins into the donations box and burn a bundle of incense at the altar.

Culturally, children are sacred to the Japanese, and a declining national birth rate has made them even more so. This morning I watched my host take half an hour to play with the baby of one of the other guests, and in my admittedly short time here, most if not all of the interactions with children I have seen have taken place with a kind of respectful awe.

After the Tokyo Tower I somehow managed to find the only bar in Tokyo that serves Franziskaner Weissbier, my favorite German beer. They were gearing up for Oktoberfest, which I guess is a thing even in Japan. Kegs of beer lined the entrance, and they were happy to serve me a liter or two. I nearly missed my stop on the subway headed back to the hostel. Arriving back at the hostel, I watched the presidential debate and then jumped into an international card game with some Ozzies, two Scandinavians and a Scot.

Life is pretty good.

-Doug