Autumn Holiday in Japan (10th-24th Nov): Saihou-ji 西方寺

When we visited the temple previous day, it was raining, we got wet. We just wanted to find it, and had to ask 3 people where it was. When I looked into the someone's website/blog, it did say hard to find, sure it was, but after that, realised it was quite straight forward as well as very closed to the station. 

16th Nov, we decided to got to the temple again, luckily, it was sunny and warm, we packed our snack got on the Marunouchi-line (丸ノ内線) from Shinotsuka (新大塚) to Shinkouenji (新高円寺). It took about 30mins or so, go through middle of Tokyo and I think this underground / subway is good for sightseeing!

We knew, by then, very clearly how to get to the temple. Now we know, took us only a couple mins or so. There are 5 temples in the area. I think Saihou-ji is one of the biggest temple.

Until Marcus mentioned, I didn't know nothing about this temple. If you do Reiki (霊気), of course you know the guy who developed, "Mr. Usui (碓井先生)" sleeps there. It was lovely temple.
Mr. Usui had a huge memorial stone with his brief life story on. It was in old languages, I couldn't understand very much.... ☹☹☹ But I understood he used to call Reiki "Reihou (霊法)". I'm not Reiki person, so, I'm not going to go on much about it, Marcus can explain in detail in his blog later.

Anyway, there's some lovely photos......

Gong the iron bell!

very Japanesy!

Mr.Usui (碓井先生) memorial stone

I picked up a local map at the tube station, it also has a big tube map on the back. It says in English too. 

Direction: Come out from the tube station, exit 1, turn right, walk towards the convenience store at the traffic light (Itsukaichikaidou 五日市街道). Turn right again, carry on walking dead straight. There's a hairdresser shop (at moment) on the corner. (But not walking along the Itsukaichikaidou.) There is also an art school on the left side opposite to the temple. 

If you are Reiki crazie, of course, you would like to visit and pay respect to the 先生, but please respect to the temple and other people's graves and stones.


Saihou-ji 西方寺：
Umezato 1, Shinkouenji, Suginami-ku, Tokyo
Tel: 03-3311-6704