Day on a Bus

On Saturday, February 11, Elder Galbraith and I took a bus tour sponsored by Yokota AFB to the historically famous Matsumoto Castle and the religiously important Zenkoji Temple in Nagano.  Although this is beyond our Mission boundaries, the President has said as senior missionaries we have no boundaries to adhere to; he just asks that we let him know whenever we go out of them.  We left at 10 a.m. and returned around 11 p.m. with probably 6 of those hours spent on the bus.  However, riding on a bus for many miles through the Japan countryside was a welcomed change from driving 

a few kilometers through congested city streets.

After a couple hours on the bus, we stopped at a truck stop for lunch along the freeway.  It was quite the experience deciding on what to eat.  Let's see:  fried dough balls containing octopus, or the ever popular sushi, or weird grey noodles, or strange-looking fish, or something resembling a hot dog on a stick.  I'm sure you can figure out what we chose.  We had no problem in selecting very tasty pastries for dessert, however!  Unless you unknowingly select one filled with sweet bean paste, you're usually going to get a tasty treat.

Truck stop with "Japanese Alps" in the background

Matsumoto Castle click here is over 400 years old and was open for tourists to climb all six of its floors.  It was a below-freezing cold day made even colder by touring through the unheated wooden castle with openings on every floor.  The cold breeze almost took our breath away.  Nevertheless, the experience was so rewarding that we were determined to survive the cold.

Approaching castle and moat

Awesome castle!

Click to enlarge so you can read about the castle

One of six floors--all somewhat dark and void of furnishings 

Bow & arrow windows, called Yazama

View from the castle top of bridge and moat

Awesome view of castle and Japanese Alps at Nagano 

It was much warmer outside in the sun!  
We then headed for the castle museum nearby.

I loved this ancient painting of the castle & other buildings 

Museum painting of an ancient battle scene

Museum display of ancient river boat

Can you believe the Emperor was carried in this!

(And I thought our apartment was small!)

Were Japanese samurai warriors inspiration for Darth Vader?

From Matsumoto Castle, we rode another hour or so to reach our destination of the Zenkoji Temple (over 300 years old) in Nagano click here, the site of the 1998 Winter Olympics.  The site dates back to the 7th century, when the first Buddhist image to arrive in Japan (delivered from Korea) was brought there and housed.  Every year there is a Tomyo Festival, commemorating the Winter Olympic Games, hoping to pass on to future generations the Olympic spirit of praying for peace.  In this event, the message for peace is conveyed through five colors of lights--representing the five Olympic colored rings--

lighting up the temple and other buildings.

Zenkoji Temple

Gate to the temple

A little history...

War Memorial Pagoda on temple grounds

Pagoda contains the ashes of all Japanese who have perished in war 

The night we were there was the opening night of the season so national television was there.  It was fun watching them interview various people.  The highlight for us was watching the opening ceremony in which seven scantily dressed (for such a cold night) male and female drummers pounded away on huge drums for at least 10 minutes in exact, duplicated rhythm and exaggerated movements. It reminded me of River Dance and their exactness in their performance.

My poor shot of the gate lit up

A picture of a picture of the temple lit up

Statue of Binzuru, a physician who was a follower of Buddha.

Temple visitors rub his statue in hopes of curing their ailments.

After the opening ceremony was completed and the temple buildings lit up, we walked down through the main street leading away from the temple.  Traffic had been stopped for the event, and hundreds of paper lanterns--all with different designs--filled the street for blocks.

Lanterns down the street leading from the temple.
My flash did away with the awesome designs showing in each lantern.

We were freezing and starving, but all the plastic food displays unfortunately looked rather distasteful.  Finally, the will to survive freezing won out over starving, so we went into a street-side restaurant to warm up.  Some of the pictures on the menu didn't look too bad, but they were over $20 a piece.  We finally asked if we could do the only kids' choice at $12 a piece.  It was almost hilarious.  We got what was a lunch tray with dividers, serving us a rice omelet (thin shell of scrambled egg over rice), a "chicken McNugget," a mashed potato patty, squash, some weird weed (which I actually didn't mind), and even an orange juice with a straw and a small pudding! We really got a kick out of it as well as wondering 

what the establishment thought of our strange choice!

Saved by the (kids') bell!

All in all, the trip was a great experience, and we are very grateful to have been able to experience 

more of the Japanese culture while here.