[Date
& Time] Sunday, December 21, at 10:40~17:30
[Spots]
Kawasaki Daish Heikenji Temple and Kawasaki City Museum
[Visitors]
2 Filipino sisters
[Attendant]
1 KSGG member
[Language]
English
A female young school teacher in
Manila visited her elder sister working as a company employee assigned to the
company in Japan. Incidentally it fell
on Odaishisama no hi (the anniversary
of Saint Kobo’s death). There were a lot
of visitors and many of them wanted to make fire-offerings. I told the visitors that we were lucky to be
able to see ritual burning of offerings, pilgrims ringing bells in the
Dai-hondo (Main Hall), and the inside
of Hakkaku Goju-no-to (Octagonal, Five-story Pagoda). They bought a Daruma（red-painted good luck doll）which would bring good luck in 2015 as their
souvenirs and experienced Japanese culture and tasted Japanese food and drink
such as amazake (sweet, slightly
alcoholic sake), kuzumochi (fermented wheat flour starch cake), tempura soba (buckwheat noodles with tempura). Then we went to Kawasaki City Museum. There narazuke
(vegetable pickled in sake lees) was introduced as one of the foods served
at the Kawasaki-juku Station, which they had seen on the Nakamise-dori Street
(a shopping street in the precincts of the temple). We found the pictures of Kawasaki Frontale players
paying a visit to Kawasaki Daishi at the photo exhibition. Actually they could see what they had in
their knowledge. I felt that sightseeing
is the education because people can learn the meanings and background of what
they see.