Visiting Zenkoji Temple, Nagano/Carlos Pueblo

Visiting Zenkoji Temple, Nagano/Carlos Pueblo

Zenkoji Temple is located on a hill 3 kilometers away from Nagano Station. We

marched to the temple through beautiful streets with spring flowering trees and

small Buddhist temples with gardens inside. The city is on a basin of Japanese

Alps with snow still on top of the mountains, with Shinano River flow through

and irrigate the farm, peaches and purple grapes famous in Japan. At the station,

there was a tense security present because an international ski contest was held

at the time. Nagano was the site of 1998 Winter Olympic. I was in both Niigata

and Kanazawa of the coastal line of the Sea of Japan in 2016. Missing Nagano was

my regret. Niigata is where Shinano River empty the flow to the sea. It’s also called

Chikuma River which a popular enka song by Goki Hiroshi in 1975 is about this river.

We ran into a couple of French spoken Swiss ladies inside a small court yard of a

Buddhist temple called Nishi Light of a legend story about a big snake from Mt.

Asashihi. They enjoy eating lunch boxes under a red color cherry blossom. Another

Japanese group and us joined them. I still have had a hard time to distinguish red

flowers among plums, peaches, and cherries.

We entered the Zenkoji. I believe that the whole area is a combination of Japanese

Shrines and Buddhist Temples. As usual, I read almost every epitaph, stone tablet

monument for their story. Many worshipers, previous and current days, donate all

kinds of stone pagodas, lanterns, and others to honor their ancestors and appreciation

of the temples. There are all very well kept and allowed for the visitors to view. Some

huge temples require ticket and bare feet to enter.

Outside of colorful temples, there is a big drum to knock at certain time during a day,

of course we are not allowed to make a noise. It is a huge garden park around the drum

stand. I saw an epitaph of poem composed by Natsume Soseki, the same fellow which

I mentioned at Suizenji Temple in Kumamoto, a famous poet and novelist and his picture

Appeared on 1,000 Japanese Yen bill. He was invited here to visit and wrote a piece and

the park honored his visit. My dad used to keep a novel of his left by a Japanese teacher

when he left Taiwan after the War. I didn’t know which one and never read it before I

left Taiwan. It is very interesting that ever have had the opportunity to visit Japan and

see how Japanese celebrate his work in literature. After he graduated from the university

, he went to teach at Kumamoto, then he went to England for advanced study and back

to teach in Tokyo and became famous.