Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Churches and Temples

One of my passions is going around various religious temples and facilities. There must be many paths to salvation, and I respect all the faiths that I've visited so far (although I am very critical of religion being institutionalised). Personally, I do not want to join any particular religion.

Some great religious sites in Tokyo are:
ICU Chapel (eucumenical? )where you can walk right onto the choir or the pulpit, whistle a tune, jam on the piano with friends, jump down the altar, sleep on the pews, etc etc... (sorry!)
Nikolai-do Cathedral (eastern orthodox christianity) big, huge, and surreal to be in the heart of Tokyo.
Salesio Church (catholicism) interior is both heavenly and cosy
Tokyo Caamii (islam) beautiful arabic letters and byzantine tiles

Mitake Jinja (mountain-worshipping shinto) on top of a mountain, complete with a village devoted to worshipping the local mountain hound deity.
Yasukuni shrine (former state shinto) strange militarist motifs armed with ultra-rightist vans
Tama Goryo (secular...but kind of shinto-ish?)basically the pyramids of Emperor Showa (hiro) and family, but there are pilgrims praying before them.
Senso-ji (tendai ? sect buddhism) full of tourists.
Ikegami-honmonji (nichiren sect buddhism) always full of faithful pilgrims.
Kinshoin (some form of esoteric buddhism) they have prayer wheels that you can spin!!
Tamagawa-taishi (buddhism) dark ancient underground labyrinth for pilgrims, 100yen.
Shaka-do cathedral (Reiyu-kai) huge cathedral with vaulted granite ceiling, really strange icons. big statue of the founder of the religion, apparently hidden behind layers of veils. Hats off to new new-religions!
Kosei Daisei-do (Rissho kosei-kai) even larger cathedral, more like an opera house. Beautiful religious motifs, giant buddha statue. Worshippers pray in a unique way. I love how all their facilities are open to everyone. go up on the rooftop and see the gigantic stupas, or to the basement where worshippers are in prayer.

One place I really one to visit is Tenri town in Nara, where the entire city is a vatican of the new religion Tenrikyo. I've never actually visited a tenri church.
And I should probably check out one of those Happy Science churches too. I really have no clue what they are about.
One thing I am terribly disappointed about is how I was declined entry into any of the Soka facilities in their vatican in Shinanomachi. Doors should be open to everyone.
Also kind of sad that the Jehovas don't come knocking on our door any more.
I should probably not make a judgement, but I do not think I will visit the Unification church or aleph. Or any 'zany' cult, for that matter. maybe i am being narrow-minded, and you can prove me wrong.
I might pop in to the Mahikaris though. they're just a new new-religion, am I right?

We also need to make sure religion doesn't lead to dumb things like the crusades or the metro gas attacks or 'oh he's going to hell if he doesn't repent'. Tolerance.

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