The magic dragon

We are so tired of staying home. We are doing our best to be strong, but it is really hard. So, we go on bike rides. The weekends have become time for long bike rides going in whatever direction the wind takes us. It is hard in the heat, but we persist (and take lots of water with us).

In the mood for a long escape, we hopped on our bikes and headed to my husband and son's favorite shrine in Tokyo prefecture. A short 10 km bike ride from home is Tanashi Jinja, a shrine protected by dragons.

My husband and son had gone a couple times without me. Every time they returned, they would say "you need to go to this shrine!" So, this time, I went along for the (long) ride.

Tanashi Jinja was founded in the 13th century, but has been in it's current location since 1670. The inner shrine building features beautifully carved dragons from 1875. It is amazing to look at the carvings. They are so detailed.

There are 5 dragon statues placed around the property of the shrine. Red, White, Black, Blue, and Gold dragons are all represented. The main shrine building (the one with all the carvings) houses the golden dragon. 

I was expecting to see the dragon statues. After all, I had heard several reports about them. I was not expecting to see a sumo mound, known as a dohyo (dough-hhh-yo). It was donated by the Showa era great champion, Taiho. He made it 27 years ago for the shrine as a prayer for the nation to have a great harvest. While I don't necessarily see the connection, it made enough sense to the sumo champion to build a mound and ring on shrine property.

While we were at the shrine, we were able to listen to several ceremonies taking place.  The sound of the monk chanting and the taiko drum beating is very relaxing to me.  

I'm sure we will be back to this shrine. It was really interesting. Unfortunately, it was just super hot and I needed to cut it short.

After getting home, I needed to water the garden pots for a second time that day. It was then that my son and I realized that we had grown rice! There were grains revealing themselves.  It was so exciting. It felt like a gift from the dragons. After all, my husband and son got the rice to grow and directions from this shrine.  We made the effort and they repaid it with prosperity. Regardless of the validity of this idea, it was fun to imagine.