Senso-ji Temple

Moshi, Moshi students,

Today we went sightseeing and saw much of Tokyo, but not all of Tokyo! Together with the rest of the Metropolitan Prefecture, there are 32 million people living in a rather small area. I learned from our guide, Iishii san, that Tok means east and yo means capital. Now I know why Edo was changed to Tokyo once the Emperor moved here. He still lives here, because where ever the Emperor is living is the capital. When Tokyo was still called Edo, the Emperor lived in Kyoto, which is west of Tokyo. You will have to look at your map again!

One of the places I enjoyed today was our visit to the Senso-ji Temple. It is a Buddhist Temple, and today was the first day of a celebration commemorating its restoration. Most people in Japan are practicing Buddhists. Buddhism came to China from India in the 5TH century, but Japan was converted to Buddhism when monks from China came here as missionaries in the 6Th century. Buddhists follow the teachings of Buddha, the Enlightened One, he is called. Buddhists are not too concerned with the material world of day to day living beacuse they view material things as being temporary compared to the real life of the soul.In these pictures you will see the T a prayer pole. It stands about 500 feet in front of the temple. The people hold one of the ribbons, or all of the ribbons, while praying. The colored ribbons are connected to white ribbons overhead leading all the way into the temple where they are fastened to the hands of the statue representing the Kannon Buddha. The other picture is only a part of Tokyo's office buildings.