Shomyoji in January

A couple of Navy types flew in from Hawaii this weekend for the Fleet Surgeon's conference the Ancient Mariner is hosting. They spent Sunday recovering from jet lag. The man elected to do this by watching football on television but the woman wanted to do some exploring. Serving as tour guide was not how the Ancient Mariner had planned to spend one of his last days off work before abandoning his lovely bride for five months.

"That's okay," cooed Lovely Bride. "There's a couple of things I want to pick up in Kamiooka. She can come with us and I'll show her Shomyoji temple and my favorite bakery on the way back to Yokosuka." The Ancient Mariner perked up. "Can we visit the wine shop above the bakery?" "Sure, and we can pick up some strawberry cream puffs as a farewell gift for the Knit Wit who's leaving Japan tomorrow." "That's really swell of us." "Oh, rest assured that we'll be eating cream puffs for dinner tonight ourselves."

Shomyoji has not disappointed me yet. The cherry blossoms were glorious the first time I visited and yellow irises ringed the pond when I went back a few months later but it is an even more peaceful setting in January. This could have something to do with the fact that the dozens of turtles which call Shomyoji home are hibernating at this time of year. In their place were dozens of ducks, including a fun-loving pair who insisted on repeatedly mooning us.

After we tossed a coin, said a Hail Mary, and rang the bell in front of the temple, we wandered off to the left and noticed hundreds of angry red men about the size of my thumb lined up along the fence and stuck on every available twiglet. A young couple explained that the little slot in the bottom of the fudomyo-ou contained fortunes that were sold to temple visitors during the New Year's holiday. Fudomyo-ou is apparently one of Buddhism's Five Wisdom Kings.  He is the destroyer of delusions and leads us toward self-control.

Maybe I ought to get to know him better.

We noticed a steep flight of stone steps I had not seen on my previous visits. Hmmm. Up we went. Repeat five times. Huff, gasp, huff. At the summit we found this statue surrounded by tombstones. The base of the statue was thick with coins so we added a few of our own. We thought perhaps the statue represented the infant Buddha cradled by his mother but Dr. T thinks we saw a statue of one of Buddha's chief aides offering peace and security to mankind. Further research is required. (That might be my slogan for 2011.)


Further research is also required regarding a hiking trail I spotted through a gap in the bushes surrounding the cemetery. Based on the looks on my companions' faces, this particular research will be better shared with Ishii.