Recap: Golden Week Outing (Part I)

Went to Ryōgoku Kokugikan (両国国技館), an indoor arena for Japan's national sports, Sumo during the past Golden Week. It was an outing organized by the RA (Resident Assistants, aka the Japanese students) of my dormitory. Well, I must say the planning and execution of the outing could have been better.. I had expected it to be much more organized.. but well, that's just me, the planning/control freak.. :p

A couple of Malaysians from another dormitory came to join in. So by and large, there are about 8 Malaysians, 5 from my dorm (including myself) and 3 from Soshigaya. We met at 10:30am at the lobby of Building 2. Other than the fact that we are going to see Sumo, we have no idea where the location nor the (train) line that we are going to take.. It was like, "Ok, let's just follow the RAs..." :x Seriously, there are about 35 of us, 外国人(foreigners), thus at least they should tell us the itinerary, which station, which (train) line so that if any one of us gets lost, we can still find our way there...

We took Chuo Local Line from Yoyogi Station and alighted at Ryōgoku (両国) Station. Unfortunately for us, it was drizzling, so the added hassle of carrying an umbrella. After walking a few blocks from the station, instead of going to see Sumo, we were lead to a temple, Ekoin Temple (回向院).



There was a 両国賑い春祭り, a kind of spring festival going on. The main hall was filled with people as the memorial service was being held.



All around the hall, there are miniature statues of bodhisattvas hanging on the walls.. but because the service is being carried out, I didn't use flash while taking photos, so all of my photos are blurry..


After a while, we got out of the hall and started to wander around the compound of the temple which proved to be more interesting..

There are several statues that seemed to be dedicated to the souls of animals, and finally I saw the statue which confirmed it..



Other than the memorial statues for animals, there is also a cemetery behind the compound..

A statue of the 地蔵菩薩 is seen here on the left of the entrance to the cemetery..

The whole place is serene and well maintained. If not for the kanji that identified the place as a cemetery, one would just assumed that the whole place is just an extension of the temple..



Unlike the cemeteries in Malaysia and Singapore, the Japanese tombs are nicely aligned and although seemed narrow, but are clutter-free..



Other than cemetery for humans, there are also rows of wooden tablets for pets that have passed away.. If you could read from the photos, most of them were for cats (猫) and dogs (犬).


There is also a site for aborted fetuses... they called it 水子塚.


It was lunch time. We were given 1 hour to eat and then meet back at the train station to proceed to the main attraction of the day, Ryōgoku Kokugikan (両国国技館) to see the sumos..

To be continue in Part II..