Tokyo Disneyland

Tokyo Disneyland in Urayasu Chiba, is one of the most popular attractions for kids in the summer (oddly around Christmas is full of young couples). Trying to avoid the incredible long queues, I visited the park one week before the official start of the school summer holiday.



Tokyo Disneyland is a licensed park from Walt Disney Company, and with next-door Tokyo Disney Sea, are the only Disney parks not owned by Walt Disney.

The park is modeled after California Disneyland, and it has become one of Japan tourist attraction for visitor from neighborhood countries.



The park closed briefly after the earthquake, due to some minor damage, but it has now re-opened with most of the attractions operating normally. The park is operating with energy saving measures, but these measures are barely noticeable.

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Temples at Naritasan

At the Narita san temple complex, the structures testify on the historical opulence and importance of the temple, with the most prominent being the Shinshoji main hall, covered on the previous post. The surrounding structures are of not less importance and stand out on its own by merit of their beauty, and importance.



The Shakado hall (former main hall), standing next to the main hall, is a wooden structure erected in 1858, designated an important cultural property and a truly characteristic structure of the late Edo period.





The Gakudo hall is normally a very small and austere structure, The Naritasan one built in 1861, considering the size and detailed decorations, give evidence on the profound devotion to Buddhism in earlier times. This structure has also been designated an important cultural property.


The Kyomodo hall an earlier main hall built in 1701; the features of the structure are representative of the mid-Edo period.



The great Pagoda of peace was erected quite recently, in 1984, in prayer of world peace, with 58m of height the structure is enormous, note the size of the people walking around the structure.







Other structures are the Seiryu Gongen Dou hall built in 1732, the Kaizandou closed to the public, and the Shussei Inari shrine (this shrine is not part of Naritasan, eventhough is in the same location).


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Fire ritual at Naritasan

Nari
In the revolt against emperor Suzaku in the year 939, the priest Kanjo received a secret order from the emperor to suppress it. Priest Kanjo went to the revelling district bearing the image of Fudomyoo from the Takaosan Jingoji temple in the capital of Kyoto. He performed a three weeks ‘Goma’ rite of peace. At the final day of the rite, the revolt had been suppressed completely. When preparing to return the image to Kyoto, he found out that the image had become heavy as a huge stone. Later in an oracle he heard Fudomyoo say, “My wish has not been fulfilled. I wish to stay here forever and relieve innumerable people from suffering.”. Emperor Suzaku moved by the mercy of Fudomyoo ordered the construction of a temple on the spot. The Naritasan shinshoji was established on that day.



The large complex Naritasan in Narita Chiba, is a great day trip from Tokyo, or a convenient way to spend a few hours around the Narita airport area.
The main external gate is quite new wooden structure built in 2008.

After the external gate, there is an open area, which is filled with vendors on festival and special temple days.




After a set of steps there is the the Niomon gate an Important cultural property built in 1830. Passing the gate a large number of very old stone slabs with the names of people who contributed to the temple’s construction are visible at the sides of the stairs.



Following a short set of steps, the main temple is now visible, at right side there is the three stories pagoda, an important cultural property built in 1712, with beautifully carved dragons on the ceiling.





The bell tower, the isseikyodo, the ablutions area and purification incense are also in the open area.


Every day the temple carries the Goma ceremonial fire rite of peace. The ceremony is open to the public but, unfortunately, no photos allowed. The monks chants, the main priest chanting and feeding the fire, is a ritual worth attending, as is only performed on the naritasan temples.


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Autumn’s walk in the park

As the weather has been steadily improving, it is a good time to check the autumn status with a walk at the Hokusou hananooka park in Chiba.


There are not many flowers in season at the moment, one of the most abundant are the buckwheat flowers that line the paths on one of the sections of the park.



Cosmos is another seasonal flower that is blooming.


Susuki grass, a traditional decoration on “autumn moon viewing”, is also spreading widely now, not only at the park but in many unattended fields as well.


Unfortunately, the autumn colors are not here yet, it is a bit early in Tokyo, but the season has already started in some regions at the north of Japan. I am really looking forward to it.

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Umi Hotaru

A rest area in the middle of the sea in the Tokyo bay. Umi Hotaru is located on the cross over point from underwater tunnel to bridge, on the Tokyo bay Aqua line Highway.




The Highway was contructed in 1997, to reduce the drive time from Kanagawa to Chiba from 100 km to 14 km, to the incredible cost of 1.44 trillion JPY. It is composed of a 4.4 km bridge and a 9.6 km tunnel, the fourth largest in the world.
The highway is not heavily used, despite the huge time saving, mainly due to the high toll cost of 3000 JPY.




The rest area has parking space for 400 cars, restaurants, food courts, coffee shop, museum, souvenir shops, and amusement area. With all the facilities it is difficult not to make a stop when crossing the Aqua line.

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