47 Ronin - 2nd Try

Today I made my 2nd approach to see the monument and the graves of the 47 Ronin.

The easiest way to get to the Sengaku-Ji (name of the shrine) would be to take the Asakusa Line until - guess what - Sengakuji-station, the sad thing is, that I discovered this brilliant info after seeking the shrine, starting at Shirokanedai (last time) and Shirokane-Takanawa.






I reached the srine, forget how and why. When I got there, I was wondering about people smoking in the shrine area, normally smoking outside on streets and so is permitted... well, who knows.

The left side of the shrine is just like a separate little shrine on its own, it's terrain of the samurai.






The story about the 47 ronin is about absolut loyalty.

When their lord was invited by another local leader/lord he drew his sword at this place, I guess he was threatened or so by the other one. Drawing his sword ment death, so he was forced to submit Seppuku (ritual suicide), which made all of his samurai leaderless ronin. The only way to reclaim the honor of their lord was by killing the other "offender", but he knew this, too, so they couldn't just into his well protected house. They all split up for 2 years, and in some way had a life without honor - crimes and so on... - the result was that the other lord felt save and didn't even think of a revenge any more. But the ronin got together again and started their assault killing their opponent, they cut off his head and brought it to their master's grave, by doing this, they recovered his honor, allthough it ment their own death - they also had to do the seppuku-ritual. As a sign of loyalty they all were burried next to their master.

After this I went on, I passed a vending machine, where Mountain Dew and a melon soda were offered, reduced to 100yen for each drink - I took 6..., it's a great discount, and I'm so into MD and any kind of melon soda, btw I finally found ramune - in Asakusa.

I took the Sengakuji-station, at the first moment I wanted to go back to the hotel, but then I decided to head for Ueno (Asakusa-Line until Asakusa, change into Ginza-Line to Ueno). My plan was to visit the books and games in the Book Off and to to the National Museum afterwards... didn't work - the museum part - after the BO I had lunch at TG Friday's, so delicious, U can't believe, after finishing my meal I was so full, it was late, so I just went back to my room.

Today I discovered, how the Nintendo Zone at 7 Eleven works, kinda easy, one has also access to the Nintendo e-shop, later that day I went out for 2 hours of Akiba, I wanted to get a shiny Gengar at Yodobashi Akiba and finally search a gift for my uncle, the first J-Pop-song we both ever heard was Future World by ELT - Every Little Thing - I found something at the Book Off, but I'm not quiet sure if it's the right version, I have no chance to play a CD here, I also went to Akiba to play some Monster Hunter 4 at the Mc Donalds, they NORMALLY always meet there to play it, they didn't this time, so my second trip ended after round about 2 hours.

Yesterday I tried to get up early for the Tsukiji fish market - I woke up at 3:30AM but only for a few seconds and went on sleeping, that's also why I missed breakfast and got up so late today.
Maybe this time it will work, I'm going to stay awake until 3:30 and walk to the market then to see the tuna auction - time to wish me some luck, but I guess it will work, I have my Mountain Dew and my Monster Energy samples from TGS.

See u later with some pictures of fresh tuna.

Nikko - In the middle of the Forest - a shrine... and one more and one more...

Today it was finally time for Nikko, the area, where more than 100 shrines are, there are also some onsen (hot spring), waterfalls and so on. There's even an entertainment park, that looks like an old feudal japanese village, just like old EDO.

The main reason I got there was to see the grave of Ieyasu Tokugawa, the last Shogun, and also to see the whole Toshogu shrine and to see the 3 wise monkeys, who don't hear, say or see any evil.

The trip started in Asakusa (Ningyocho to Asakusa), where I bought the tickets to get to Tobu-Nikko.

I bought a pass for a round-trip, and for free usage of the busses in Nikko. To use a limited express you need to pay the normal fee and an additional rate (special discount in Asakusa, 1.080), it still was a lot, 3.760 for the pass and the express service, but OK, Nikko was worth visiting.

After arriving at Nikko I took Bus C to get to the world heritage area, where all the famous shrines were. After a while and other things to see I finally reached the area of the Toshogu shrine. 1.300 to enter..., the sad thing was that the big Yomaimon, the big and impressive gate was repaired/renovated, but there was still enough to see.

The wise monkey carvings in one building were my first target, it reminded me a bit of the circle of life from LION KING. You can see the story in the pictures.

After that the inner shrine waited, one could get into almost every main hall, but only without shoes and the possibility to take photos.

After the main shrine I walked up all the 200 stairs to get to Ieyasu Tokugawa, the path started with a gate with a sleeping cat. At the end of the path there it was the grave of the last shogun.

The whole shrine took a lot of time, so there was no time to see anything else, like an onsen or one of the waterfalls, so I went back to the station to get back to Tokyo and my hotel.

A nother reason for getting home so early is the thing, that I wanna get up at 3:30AM tomorrow to get to the tuna auction at Tsukiji.

(On my way back I transfered in Oshiage-Skytree to take the Hanzomon Line)

See you tomorrow

Trophies:

"Meet" Ieyasu Tokugawa
Learn from the monkeys
... (maybe one more - no list reachable)