The T-Files

The T-Files

Everything Thilo feels he needs to share ...

Sections

Older stuff

Even older stuff (2004)

Ancient stuff (2003)

Styles

Projects

Email
thiloplanz@web.de

Subscribe
Subscribe to a syndicated feed of my weblog, brought to you by the wonders of RSS.

Sat, 14 Feb 2004

Asakusa Kannon

The Asakusa Kannon (or Sensoji) temple is the oldest and most popular temple in Tokyo. It is a major tourist attraction with over 30 million visitors every year. It was founded in the seventh century after three fishermen found a tiny statue of Kannon, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, in their nets.

There are two main religions in Japan: Shinto, the original Japanese religion, which is deeply connected to nature and its numerous deities, and Buddhism, which was imported from China in the sixth century. Accordingly, there are two types of places of worship, Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. But since both religions do not contradict eachother and are quite compatible, most Japanese practice rituals of either and frequent shrines as well as temples. You can also get red ink stamps in temples and in shrines. Despite Buddhism and Shinto getting along so well, I wanted to start a seperate album for Buddhist temples. And as it turned out, Asakusa Kannon is part of a pilgrimage to 33 temples in the Tokyo area, and I could get a special album for this tour. The calligrapher who made the stamp assured me that it is no problem to start at Asakusa (number 13 of the 33).

[/japan/goshuin] permanent link

Togo-jinja

The name of Heihachiro Togo is world-famous and ranks alongside that of Lord Nelson as one of the world's greatest Admirals. At least that is what they say at Togo-jinja in Harajuku, which was built in 1940 (destroyed in 1945, rebuilt in 1964) to enshrine the soul of the admiral (1847-1934). As often happens at weekend visits to shrines, there was a traditional Japanese wedding ceremony going on when I went there.

[/japan/goshuin] permanent link

iBook down

I am writing on Cissy's Hitachi Prius today. My iBook does not boot anymore. It makes the startup sound and the disk seems to spin for a second, but that's it. Screen remains dark, no way to even tell if it is on or off. Removed the battery to make sure about that. Tried many things, no good. Not good.

[/tech] permanent link