Osaka Ben

The Gate of Doom! Tennouji Temple! For the first time in 2 years, I woke up before 11AM and headed out to Tennouji with Cory and Natalie in search of Buddhist art and culture. But what we found… was a different story.

天王寺や！２年ぶり午前１１時前起きて、コーリさんとナタリーさんと一緒にジャパニーズな仏教のアートを調べにいった！

First, up the giant pagoda-thing! Little did Cory and I realize that the stairs were so steep and the payoff was so small. Somehow, each floor became less interesting than the last, until finally at the sumit we discovered only this thing… and not a “laser” control center as previously suspected.

まず塔を登った。ロードオブザリングと全然違う。だんだんあがってきて、しょ〜もなくなった。上の部屋には何も入ってなかった。でっかいレーザーみたいな武器かなんかあると思ったのに。窓も網で隠れてたんで全然景色が見えなかった。

Onto the next building. Big Buddhas ahoy! But as this photo was snapped a gnarled old temple woman ran screaming down the hall. “Be more careful! Can’t you read the sign!” She screamed pointing at a sign written below the statue. It was written in roman letters, but inFrench. Merde! Mal! After some confusion, we realized that taking photos of the Buddha was forbidden… funny, I didn’t realize the inanimate Hotokesama statue was Amish - guess you learn something new every day. His photo seems to grace the 1500yen book at the giftshop… and suddenly the universal harmony of the situation all makes sense.

まぁ、えぇゎ！次のビルへ！でっかい仏像やろう！写真を撮ると怒られた、寺のおばあさんに。「気をつけてよ！」と言いながら看板に指差していた。たしかローマ字だったけどフランス語だった。「あの、これはフランス語やけど…」と言ったけど。おばあさんはそれを無視して、「仏様の写真をとっちゃあかん！」と叫んだ。まさか、ブッダはAmish?

私達の外人三人で謝って、次のところへ移動した。

Onto the scary garden!

まぁえぇゎ！庭へいこう！

Damn, no momiji (maple leaves) and no lotus blossoms. Guess going between seasons was not the best bet. Yay November.
I think I figured out why the school Undokais are all on this month - otherwise there’d be no reason to drink!

紅葉はまだまだ。桜は大分前終わった。咲いている蓮は…なかった。もうちょっと季節を調べてからいけばよかったかも。さすが、１１月。

Greedy Koi were our only friends. After counting the number of fins on the Koi we all realized that few tattooists have been drawing them right for the last few centuries. Maybe I should count the number of teeth horses have while I’m at it…

鯉がいっぱいおった！よ〜みたら、鰭はいっぱいある。「今までずっと描き方間違えたかも」と言ったコーリ。

Everything else at the temple was under construction, but at least we got a couple fotos of the Nio guardians at the gates:

他のビルは工事中だったんでそれ以上は見えなかった。天王寺を出たとき仁王の写真を撮った。コーリから久しぶりなアメリカンジョーク：「怒られるぞう」と言われた。