Hiraizumi

Ooaj Travel Guide, tourism, hotel reservation, residence, plane, cheap pension for you holidays in hiraizumi

Free Travel guide Ooaj.com A free travel guide for holidays. Hotels in hiraizumi, Bed and Breakfast!

Hiraizumi (??) is a small town in Iwate, in the northeastern Tohoku region of Japan.

	hiraizumi Travel Guide : 1 Understand 2 Get in 2.1 By train 3 Get around 4 See 5 Buy, Eat & Drink 6 Sleep 6.1 Budget 7 External links

Understand

??? ???? ???

natsugusa ya tsuwamono-domo ga yume no ato

Summer grass — all that remains of warrior dreams

-- Matsuo Bash?

During the reign of the Fujiwaras (866-1184), Hiraizumi was said to rival Kyoto in grandeur and sophistication, but now all that remains are the temples of Chusonji and Motsuji, both of which are mostly in ruins at that. Famed haiku poet Matsuo Basho penned the famous haiku quoted above, with the end result that now Basho is more idolized in Hiraizumi than anywhere else. You can't throw a rock in Hiraizumi without hitting a Basho statue, a Basho monument, an inscribed copy of a Basho haiku or at the very least a coffee shop waving its "As mentioned in Narrow Road to the Deep North!" banners.

Get in

By train

Hiraizumi is on the JR Tohoku Main Line, connecting to Morioka in the north and Sendai to the south.

The nearest Shinkansen stop, Ichinoseki, is only 10 minutes away (¥170). Trains from Tokyo reach Ichinoseki in about 2 1/2 hours (¥12470 for the one-way trip to Hiraizumi; no charge with the Japan Rail Pass).

Get around

Local buses connect JR Hiraizumi station to points of interest, although you can also reach them on foot.

See

• Ch?son-ji Temple?(???). Hiraizumi's largest and most famous temple, renowned particularly for its Golden Hall (??? Konjikid?) — which, unlike Kyoto's Golden Pavilion, is housed inside a large glass case. Entry a rather steep ¥800. 5 minutes by bus or 20 on foot from the station.

• M?tsu-ji Temple (???). The second of Hiraizumi's two large temples, known for its Heian-era Pure Land Garden (??? J?do-en) dating to 800 AD. The garden seems downright un-Japanese in its liberal use of wide, grassy spaces — but most of the open spaces have scattered rocks and are marked with small posts in the middle, indicating the locations of destroyed temple buildings. Entry into the garden and the small museum ¥500. 10 minutes on foot from the station.

Buy, Eat & Drink

There are a number of small teahouses and souvenir stands in the grounds of Ch?sonji.

Sleep

Budget

• Motsuji YH. Tel. 0191-46-2331, 1 (http://www.jyh.or.jp/english/touhoku/motsuji/index.html). Definitely the most interesting place to stay in Hiraizumi, this youth hostel is located on the grounds of Motsuji and run by the temple itself.??You can even sample zen mation in the mornings — if you're willing to wake up at 6 AM! A bed for the night costs ¥2940, (plus an optional ¥630 for breakfast), including entry to temple grounds and the museum.

External links

• Hiraizumi Town (http://www.town.hiraizumi.iwate.jp/) (Japanese only)

Biggest country to travel: Biggest cities to travel: Islands in the top travel 40: World Travel guide Random travel link: Brazil England Nigeria Australia Sao Paulo in Brazil Berlin Germany Sao Paulo in Brazil Mexico City Sicily Australia Kauai Maui Cape_Breton_Island Laos Uzbekistan Iraq Yemen Paraguay Netherlands Finland Travel Italy Hungary Oslo in Norway

• Url Rewriting, optimisation, referencement professionnel: Atuvu Referencement
• Cours 2 langues, cours d'anglais tous niveaux Cours 2 Langues
• Photographe aix en provence Daniel Weiss
• Ooaj Travel Guide Home Page