We go to Hasedera for a day trip.
It’s a 40-KM train journey away. We pass through less densely-packed parts of town.
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Hasedera village is tranquil and rural. You only hear the stream that runs through town.
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The narrow main street is full of interesting shops.
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It’s fun to browse. Maria buys a new wallet.
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There are no non-Asian visitors here. It is off the (non-Asian) tourist map. Why are we here? In January 2016, we see Robert Lepage’s The Library at Night at the ‘national’ archives in Montreal.
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Among its aspects is a VR (virtual reality, for those of you over a century old) tour of ten world libraries, some imaginary, some past and gone, some still in existence.
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One was the rotating sutra library of the Hasedera monastery. Such a library is known a kyozo.
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I find this so fascinating. I vow that if we ever go to Japan, we’ll seek out this library. (Thinking it not very likely, at the time.)
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As it turns out, Hasedera happens to be located less than an hour from Osaka, where we first arrive. An uncanny coincidence.
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So of course we make an effort to visit, since we’re in the vicinity.
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While here, we touch the feet of the Buddha for good luck. Sorry, no photos allowed where the magic happens.
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We have lunch in the village at a local restaurant.
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Then back to town again. Did we mention that our place in Osaka has a resident cat?
His name is Akubi. Akubi means ‘yawning’, which he does a lot of. Usually just before napping. He has strangely short legs, like a dachshund or a corgi.
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When he’s not prowling the hotel, he sits on a leash outside and lets adoring passers-by fuss over him.
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You can see he’s just loving the attention we give him. </S>
Sight or Insight of the Day – Hasadera
In one of those exquisite ironies of travel, we arrive at the site of the Hasadera library in the temple grounds, years after first learning of it on a freezing Montreal January afternoon on the other side of the globe – and it’s closed. At least to the public.
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Oh well. So it goes. This is what it looks like on the inside.
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