Japan Day 2, Part 3: Chanting in Chion-in

Considering how easy and pleasant it is to cycle around Kyoto, it can be incredibly difficult to find bike parking. Apparently, improper parking is heavily enforced as well so that tourists' pictures don't all have bikes in the frame. I managed to find an improper but out of the way place to lock up my rental before walking up the wide path to Chion temple. The first thing to notice about Chion-in is that its enormous.

An entire hillside is devoted to the complex, and many of the individual buildings are themselves huge, though some of the more interesting ones were also some of the smallest. 

The entire time I was there, the chanting of dozens of voices reverberated throughout the area. It took a while to even figure out the source, and it definitely was an appropriate addition to the temple atmosphere.

Large sections of the complex were under renovation, presumably including the largest bell in Japan since I didn't see it. As always, I love dramatic warning signs. 

This was the first time I encountered rocks with aprons. At the time I had no idea what they were and laughed at how silly they looked. With a little research, I found that these are statues of Jizo, the Buddhist protector of children who die before their parents. These children are unable to cross into the the afterlife because they haven't accumulated enough good deeds and have caused their parents suffering, so they are doomed to have to stack rocks at a river's edge for eternity. However, Jizo hides them in his robes when the demon who enforces this policy comes around. Thus these apron-clad rocks are not whimsical at all but instead are sad monuments to miscarried, aborted, or stillborn fetuses, or to children who died young. I hope I didn't laugh in front of anyone who was there to remember a lost child. 

If I recall correctly, the chanting was coming from in here:

Once I had wandered throughout Chion-in, I biked through Yasaka- Jinja. The deep thought that it impressed upon me was that it was very orange. It was crowded with vendors and tourists, however, so I simply moved on without so much as dismounting to take pictures.