Kunozan Toshogu

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the greatest Shogun in Japanese history, and amazingly enough his tomb and final resting place is right nearby the city where I'm living! It's near the coast on a hill that you can get to by climbing 1159 large stone steps, or by taking a scenic skyrail. Guess which way we went! The view was amazing, even though the sky was quite hazy. Along the coastline there are a lot of artificial bulwarks to protect towns from typhoons, and all the large white buildings are greenhouses for growing strawberries. They might not look so beautiful, but anyway the strawberries are delicious! Amongst a grove of bamboo we spied these "takenoko" shoots growing. Unfortunately, we didn't see any duelling samurai. The temple built in front of the tomb was very impressive. It was very well maintained, and even though the structures themselves are the originals from 1617, they have been completely restored and redecorated lavishly. The architecture is a combination of Shinto and Buddhist styles, though most Buddhist parts have been removed for political reasons after the end of the Shogunate period. After seeing this picture of me, I'm seriously thinking about spending a lot of time at the beach. The detail on the art all around the temple was incredible, but even more impressive was the actual tomb of Ieyasu itself. I don't think the little boy playing on the steps quite understood the significance though!