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。