This was the First Buddhist Temple in Japan. The hoary and humble temple of Gango-Ji nestled in a modern urban city setting was the first Buddhist Temple in Japan.

This was part of the interior to this Temple.

This is the main building of the Temple.

This temple was swarmed by hundreds of students. As was many of the temples that I visited. There were smartly dressed flag leaders (teachers) and children in a royal blue uniforms. I saw only a few monks at the temples.

There are many specialized buildings at all temple complexes in Japan. There are study halls, great halls, meditation centers, monk dormatories, history centers, libraries, food halls.

One of the main temples at HoryuJi Temple

One of the main temples at HoryuJi Temple

The main hall of another Temple, TodaiJi was not associated with Buddhism arriving in Japan ,but is the world's largest wooden structure.

Every temple had Buddha images within them. The Siddhartha Gautama, the lord Buddha, was the philosopher founder of the Buddhism Religion, which started as a Philosophy. Believing that suffering is an integral part of living (Samudaya); that suffering arises from Desire (Nirohda); that the end of suffering can be controlled by controlling Desires (Dukka,Magga).

The nearby temple of Hokki-Ji had the oldest (non-reconstructed) wooden structure in the world. Most of the old wooden structures in the world have been burnt, insect eaten or collapsed and rebuilt.

I also squeezed in a visit to Kennin-Ji in Kyoto. This forced me to grapple with the Bus system in Kyoto. Kennin-Ji was the first Zen temple in Japan. The carefully architected temple of Kennin-ji exuded serenity. The roar of Japan's cultural history is silencing.

I saw some monks emerge from this dormatory in behind Kennin-Ji (to the left of this picture but not shown here), but couldn't get a picture of them. they were dressed in Yellow instead of the Thaimonks who were dressed in Orange.