えんりゃくじ

こんいちは、みんなさん！

きょうは、えんりゃくじというお寺(おてら,temple)についてかきます。

えんりゃくじは、京都のちかくにあります。ひえいざんという山のうえにあります。

Enryakuji is actually one of the most important places for Japanese Buddhism, because it was built when the capital of Japan was still Kyoto.

I'm writing about it today because I went on a trip to visit it last week! You have to go up to the top of the mountain, but then there are over 100 different buildings to see. You can't go in to all of them (and you wouldn't have time to, anyway!), but it's very fun just walking around up there.

This was the view of the mountains as I went to the meeting point in the morning. さむかったですよ！

To get to the top of the mountain, first we had to take a train to where the cable car station is. This is the train we took. かわいいですね。The announcements were all in Thomas's voice too. My friends were really surprised when I told them the Thomas the Tank Engine is British, they all thought he was a Japanese character!

 This is the ケーブルカー we took; the mountain is really, really steep! Apparently you can sometimes see monkeys in the forest, but sadly we didn't see any...

 This is the view of Lake Biwa from the station at the top. Everything was pretty hazy, you culd barely see where the lake stopped and the clouds began.

 こんぽんちゅうどう：This is one of the most important temples in the complex. It has a flame that hasn't been put out in 1200 years, ever since the temple was founded. We couldn't take pictures inside, but it was very pretty, especially the garden. There was also a very friendly monk who was chatting away to everyone - it was my first time meeting a real Buddhist monk!

 だいこうどう：This is a study hall, it had lots of religious books and also paintings of many important Buddhist monks, stretching right back in time.

 にあいどう：We went further up the mountain and past these two temples that are connected by a walkway. They looked a little abandoned, so I was really surprised when our tour leader told everyone to quieten down and we could hear monks chanting inside. Apparently no one actually lives there, but they still go up there to pray. とてもさむかったですから、わたしもあそこにすみたくないですよ！



しゃかどう：これもきれいでしたが、さむかったです！



 Around the courtyard by Shaka-do there were lots of these little statues. I asked a friend what they were for and he said they're probably lucky, and the aprons would be for purity. He also joked that the aprons kept them warm up here on top of the mountain. (Did I mention it was cold yet? A couple of times? It was cold!)

 ひえいざんのちず

では、みんなさん、どうおもいますか。ぶっきょう(Buddhism)にきょうみがありますか。
ぜひおしえてください！
As always, if you have any comments, questions, or a topic you'd like me to write about next, please leave it in the comments below!

よんでくれて、ありがとうございます。

たべもの

こんにちは、みんなさん！

きょうは、たべものについてかきます　（＾－＾）

I think I said when I came to your class in the summer, but one of the things I was most looking forward to about Japan was the food, and it did not disappoint!

So you all know what sushi is, and of course I’ve been to eat some already ~

This is a picture from a trip we made to the local conveyor belt sushi restaurant; it’s kind of like Yo! Sushi in the UK, but much cheaper! One plate is 100 yen, and I was full after only four. (You can see that some of my friends ate a little more than that, though!).

 If you haven’t been to a restaurant like this before, you sit down next to a little conveyor belt full of small plates of sushi, and just pick up any plate that you think looks tasty. Then at the end, the waiter or waitress counts up how many plates you had, and works out how much you owe them. I was a little confused the first time, so I was glad that I had some Japanese friends to help me out!

I’ve also eaten some ramen already. Have you heard of ramen before? It's a kind of noodle soup. とてもゆうめいな日本のたべものですよ。

This is the “curry ramen” I had out at a restaurant:

 

 

Of course, a lot of students eat instant ramen because it’s very easy to make. I’ve got some too, it’s soy sauce flavoured:

 

 

(As you can see on the packet, soy sauce is actually called しょうゆ in Japanese, I was pronouncing it wrong for the first week)

In any case, you shouldn’t just live on ramen, it’s not very good for you!

The other food that I’m really enjoying is the bento (べんとう、弁当）boxes that you can buy in the supermarket. This is one that was reduced because the shop was closing soon (the shops are very strict when it comes to having fresh food for the bento boxes, so you can get good deals if you go shopping later). This bento box includes えびてんぷら (deep-fried shrimp) and すきやき (sweet beef stew).

 

 

Sticking with supermarket food, I really like the おにぎり (rice balls) that are available everywhere. They're a little like sandwiches. You shape the rice into a ball or a triangle, put a filling like tuna or chicken inside, then wrap it with のり (seaweed) to eat it.

 

 

Finally, this is a strawberry-flavoured KitKat! You can get a lot of different flavours of chocolate here, including matcha green tea flavoured, but so far this is my favourite.

みんなさん、どうおもいますか。日本のたべものをたべたことがありますか。？？どうでしたか。

You can post a reply in the comments below. Also, please leave a comment if there’s anything you’d like me to write about next time! I still have a lot of Japanese food to discover, so I'm sure I'll be writing about it again soon.

よんでくれて、ありがとうございます！