JINDAIJI

One Autumn day (November 1998) I went to Jindaiji (Jindai Temple) and Jindai botanical garden.
It was a very refreshing day, the air was clean, and the wind was tender.

No. Please click on pictures to enlarge. Explanation
1
Jindai Botanical Garden
This is the entrance of Jindai Botanical Garden.
The fair is 500 yen, but people older 65 don't need to pay.
We took a bus at Kichijooji Station, and it took about half an hour to arrive at this garden.
2 Chrysanthemum Wagon Near to the entrance, there was a very beautiful chrysanthemum display on a wagon.
A couple of parents were just taking a photo of their daughter.
She is so lovely, isn't she?
Me too, I took a photo of her.
3 Chrysanthemum Display What a beautiful display.
Many chrysanthemum amateur raised up these flowers.
In Japan there are many chrysanthemum manias.
They take much care of their treasures.
And it's a great joy for them to hear peoples applause.
4 Chrysanthemum Flower This is my most favorite one.
Very delicate flowers.
I love these flowers' noble figure and color.
And in Japan Chrysanthemum is the symbol of Japanese Royal Family.

You noticed? These three flowers bloom from one stem. Yes, one stem has only three branches, and a branch has only one flower.
5 Rose Garden This year, Autumn came vary late.
In the rose garden, roses are still in flowers.
This botanical garden is famous with this rose garden.
My mother, her too, loves roses.
However it's very difficult to raise roses here in Japan, because the Summer is too hot and it rains very much.
6 Restaurants We left the botanical garden, and now we're going to the famous old temple.
Here comes many people to visit the temple and to eat famous soba noodles.
There are many noodle restaurants, and there we can eat other things; sweets, odangos, amazake and many other.
And this scenery is very impressing. I think I'm walking in 100 years ago.
7 Slope to the Temple This is the slope that invites us to the temple.
On the right side of the streets, there are flower shops.
My mother likes to buy flower pots here.
And we often find very rare flowers that cannot be found anywhere else.
8 Traditional Toys On a shop they sell Japanese traditional toys.
Japanese traditional? I don't know well, but they have really Japanese taste.
I wonder whether children still love those kind of simple toys.
9 Main Street This is the main street.
This area is a MONZENMACHI; a commercial zone made in front of a temple.
Many people come to the temple, therefore many shops and restaurants were born to treat visitors.
10 Temple Hill Now, we entered in the temple garden.
There on a hill we can see the pray hall.
11 Beautiful Carps In the garden there is a small pond.
The water is very clear, and we can see beautiful carps.
The carps are really beautiful! Usually a good gold carp is over 100,000 yen.
These carps are Japanese original.
Japanese Richmen's dream is to have a house with a large pond where swim many gold carps.
12 Fountain Well, let's go to pray.
But, at first we mush wash our hands.
After having washed hands with cold water, we feel our minds washed and clean.
With a dirty mind, what can we pray for?
13 Pray Hall This is the pray hall. It's wooden and very old.
And usually we don't enter into the hall.
We pray on the top of the steps.
Inside, there are statues.
When we have troubles in mind, we ask to the priest to pray for us.

Now, I finished praying. For what? For the peace in the World!
14 Templ's Gate This is the main gate of Jindaiji.
This gate too, it's wooden and very old.
Sometimes Japanese temples seem very old farmer houses.
Why must we decorate temples with jewels and gold?
No! The most important thing is people's mind for pray.
Do you agree with me?
15 Explanation I found a plate that introduces Jindaiji history.
But, sad enough, Japanese explanation differs from English explanation.
Anyway, can you see the number 733 in the Japanese explanation?
Yes, this temple is founded in 733.