{"id":305,"date":"2018-01-17T08:22:57","date_gmt":"2018-01-17T14:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/esj-2018\/?p=305"},"modified":"2018-01-27T00:41:12","modified_gmt":"2018-01-27T06:41:12","slug":"religious-monuments-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/esj-2018\/2018\/01\/17\/religious-monuments-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Religious Monuments In Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the day of January 6, 2018, our two classes went to the Meiji Shrine in Shibuya, Tokyo. \u00a0We walked under this large arch and a pathway lead to the shrine. \u00a0There were pamphlets to demonstrate how to properly wash ourselves at the cleansing stations. \u00a0Since it is the start of the new year, extra cleansing stations sat <\/span>next to the proper ones.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>The Shinto shrine is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Sh\u014dken. \u00a0Several women dressed in kimonos and booths lined the center of the shrine, selling lucky charms and other souvenirs. \u00a0People lined up to pray to the gods and hang up their wishes for the new year.<\/span><\/p>\n

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During our free days on January 16, 2018, the group that I travelled with visited the <\/span>K\u014dtoku-in, a J\u014ddo-sh\u016b Buddhist temple in Kamakura in Kanagawa Prefecture. \u00a0It was a pathway that looked like a park to the shrine. \u00a0It wasn\u2019t quite as busy but many school children exited that we initially thought it was a school. \u00a0There also was a cleansing area. \u00a0It cost 200 yen while the Meiji Shrine was free to all patrons. \u00a0We also were able to pay 20 yen to enter inside of the huge Buddha statue.<\/span> \u00a0Behind all of the temple buildings, there was a bathroom and a rock garden for meditation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Towards the end of that day, we visited the Enoshima shrine on the island in Kanagawa. \u00a0The Shinto shrine was split up into several levels with pay-to-use escalators available for those who needed it.<\/span> \u00a0A lot of families and couples attended. \u00a0There\u2019s a cafe with ice cream and a sitting area at the top where we watched the sunset. \u00a0You could see Mt. Fuji, the bay, and city sprawled out around us. \u00a0They also had a solar powered garden of lights. \u00a0The view was enchanting. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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One of the prompts that we are posed in this class is \u201cDescribe Japan\u2019s natural landscape.\u201d \u00a0I have observed that from a large city like Tokyo to the Enoshima Island, they see value in respecting nature. \u00a0It can be illustrated in the specific allocation of land for the Meiji shrine, seemingly carved out in the middle of Tokyo and the beautiful views of Mount Fuji from atop the hills in Enoshima.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One of the prompts that we are posed in this class is \u201cDescribe Japan\u2019s natural landscape.\u201d \u00a0I have observed that from a large city like Tokyo to the Enoshima Island, they see value in respecting nature. \u00a0It can be illustrated in the specific allocation of land for the Meiji shrine, seemingly carved out in the middle of Tokyo and the beautiful views of Mount Fuji from atop the hills in Enoshima. \u00a0Despite the expansion of modern life evident in Japan, they have found ways to integrate the natural world in their everyday lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

I personally found the way how each site funded their upkeep interesting as well as how even though they were religious monuments, I couldn\u2019t help but feel that they catered to tourists and visitors. \u00a0I acknowledge that that\u2019s how they keep their temples and shrines in the best conditions, but I also feel that having a cafe at the top of a temple detracts away from the religious importance and commercializes the experience. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the day of January 6, 2018, our two classes went to the Meiji Shrine in Shibuya, Tokyo. \u00a0We walked under this large arch and a pathway lead to the shrine. \u00a0There were pamphlets to demonstrate how to properly wash ourselves at the cleansing stations. \u00a0Since it is the start of the new year, extra […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2690,"featured_media":610,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/esj-2018\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1128\/2018\/01\/FullSizeRender-3-3-e1517034233872.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/esj-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/esj-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/esj-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/esj-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2690"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/esj-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/esj-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":615,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/esj-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions\/615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/esj-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/esj-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/esj-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/esj-2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}