Day 48: Temples 78 - 80

We first visited Temple 78, Gōshōji which was up a short hill. We got there at the same time as a group of bus ohenro-san.

Underneath the temple is a Mantai Kannondo. There are about 10,000 miniature statues of Kannon Bosatsu surrounding the principal image, Sho Kannon Bosatsu. They fulfill the prayers of visitors. this room filled with small images of Buddha.

Next we walked along city streets. Along the way we saw a train spotter. There is a subculture in Japan where you try to get pictures of all the different trains in Japan.

Just before the next temple, we saw a temple with a Giraffe worshipping. It is part of a program to put local art work in public places.

Temple 79, Tennōji is on the same site as a shrine. Shrines and Temples were often built together until 1868 when the government forced them to separate. The process was never fully completed so you can still see a few that share the same compound.

On the way to the next temple, we met a Japanese couple we have seen on and off for several days.

Temple 80, Kokubunji had many statues of Kobo Daishi.

It also had a statue for each of the 88 temples. Sawako enjoyed looking at them and remembering her visit to the temples.

On the temple grounds, there was a Shinto Fudo Myo-o statue and a love shrine. So a mixture of Shintoism and Buddhism.

We saw statues of Shichi-Fuku-Jin, the seven lucky gods (yes I am missing one).

The Kobo Daishi hall was inside a building.

We walked 17.9km today. You can see a map of my tracks here (you may have to refresh the page after a minute to get it to show).  If you have Google Earth, it is faster to download a Google Earth file of my adventure from here.