Trip to Tokyo (1): Imperial Gardens and Asakusa Temple

All last week, I was in Tokyo, having been invited to be one of the keynote speakers at the International Association of School Librarianship conference, following the translation (and updating) of my last academic book into Japanese. One of the most pleasing, and I guess rather strange, things I saw was when I went into the large lecture room where my talk was to take place. Up on the big screen was my picture and my profile – in Japanese – and it looked like this.

ジェームズ・ヘリング博士（8月26

情報リテラシーと学校・学校図書館の専門家として知られ、2012年にオーストラリアのチャールズ・スタート大学を退職するまで34年間、英国とオーストラリアの大学で教えてきた。著書は11冊に上る。IASLを含め、世界各地で開催される国際研究大会で発表している。現在、生まれ故郷のスコットランド・ダンバー市のオーラル・ヒストリーの研究に取り組む（2016年に研究成果を出版予定）。サイクリングと現代詩の朗読を熱烈に愛し、世界各地を旅しながら、撮影した写真を自身のブログ（https://jherring.wordpress.com）に毎週投稿している。

いずれの日も日英、英日の同日通訳が入ります。

The conference was very good and very well organised and I went to some interesting papers e.g. on school libraries as learning spaces. I was the last cab off the rank, speaking on Friday morning just before the closing ceremony. There was a packed house and several questions about my talk, which was rewarding.

I did have some time to see some of the sights of Tokyo and my first venture was to the Imperial Palace Gardens (good photos) which was the site of the original Edo Castle, originally built in the 15th century. Part of the castle walls and the moat survive and they are an impressive site as you enter the gardens.

Walls and moat at the entrance to the Imperial Palace Gardens, Tokyo

The gardens are extensive and it is a very pleasant quiet area in the hugely busy city of Tokyo. It was 32 degrees and 70+% humidity on the day I went so I did not cover the whole gardens but there are some interesting buildings in the gardens such as the one below with the extensive mosaics.

Mosaics I the Imperial Palace Gardens, Tokyo

My second visit was to the famous Asakusa Temple (good photos) and it has a very colourful entrance, with a huge balloon like structure in between two Buddhist statues.

Entrance to the Buddhist Temple at Asakusa, Tokyo

This is a very popular visiting spot for both Japanese and for tourists and there is a 200m long market area, which sells food, clothing and various Japanese artefacts such as fans and kimonos. The pagoda which houses the temple is very imposing and impressive and is honoured as a holy place by Japanese Buddhists. In the photo below, you see the pagoda but also get an impression of how busy this site was.

Temple at Asakusa, Tokyo

As you walk towards the temple, there is a metal orb which contains a fire with incense in it and people fan the flames on to their bodies, to ward off evil and bring them luck.

Fanning the smoke at Asakusa Temple, Tokyo

The temple itself is inside the building and while you can go in, after taking off your shoes, no photographs are allowed. The temple itself is very ornate with many statues which appear to be made of gold. There were clearly devout people in the temple praying and Buddhist monks welcomed them.