Here and Zen

Temple from our room

Across the street is a Starbucks Coffee and a temple. In fact, you can sit and sip coffee and look out on the temple gardens. The Rokkakudo Temple has the best dressed Jizo. They are stone statues of Bodhisattva, the guardian deity for children. They often have shaven heads and wear red aprons. The Rokkakudo Jizo also wear hats (for warmth, I suppose).

Well- dressed Jizo

Napping Jizo (needs some Starbucks coffee)

Temple amidst the skyscrapers

Tucked against the eastern mountains is Nanzen-ji, a complex of Zen temples. We climbed incredibly steep stairs to reach a balcony in the San-mon Gate. From there we had wonderful views of the temple complex thru the brief snow showers.

In every temple, it's shoes off and carried with you in "shoe bag"

Aqueduct arches and young girls