– The Byodo-In Temple in Oahu, Hawaii. I'm Chris, this is the traveling princess, and this is part of our series on some of the off the beaten
path attractions on a Oahu. If you've seen all the big
things, you've seen Waikiki, you've seen the blow hole, here's some things you might wanna see. And it starts with the Byodo-In Temple. So this temple is on the other side of the island from Waikiki. So it's about a 30 minute
drive from Waikiki, but what is this temple? It is a replica of a 900 year
old temple of the same name, originally in Kyoto, Japan. The original one was made
entirely of wood with no nails.
This one was built in 1968,
primarily of concrete. Now, when you're driving
here, put Google Maps in, you're gonna drive through a cemetery, that's the right way to get
here, that's right back there. Now to come in here,
$5 admission per adult. You cross this really neat red bridge, and then we're gonna get
to something really cool that you might've heard
in the background already. And it's the sound of the sacred bell. This bell, a replica of the
original at the Byodo-In, in Kyoto. A replica of one of the three
most sacred bells in Japan. It's believed that if you
ring this on your way in, it will clear your mind of negativity and bring you peace and happiness. That is definitely the sound
of peace and happiness. Now before heading into the temple itself, up on the hill is the meditation pavilion. If the sound of that drone is something you wish to meditate to
you can check this out.
It's also known as the
emperors fishing pavilion. Now, right in the center of the grounds is a really big pond. And it's not any pond, but there's a whole bunch of
really big koi fish in there. If you like fish, check them out. Even if you don't like fish, check them out because
they are really big. And these koi fish, they are
hungry and they will eat food if you give it to them. They'll be jumping out
of the water for it. If you want to buy some
food to feed the fish, there's a gift shop right here, just on the other side of the
bridge from the temple itself. If you do want to feed the
fish or visit the gift shop, do it before 4:30. It closes 15 minutes before
the rest of the temple does. Now I want to point out that this actually isn't a functioning temple. There's no monks here.
There's no monastic group here. It's just this replica and a place that you can go in to see. It's been featured on
Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum PI. And if you want to go in
the temple of the staircase, you do have to remove your shoes. But I do want to point
out, we are in Hawaii, and not Japan. Because the sign right there says, Aloha. Please remove your
slippers before entering. If you haven't picked up
that Hawaiian English, slippers is Hawaiian English for sandals. Now as you enter into the temple, they ask you to remove your shoes and carry them with
you through the temple. What's in here.? It's a really big, 18
foot tall, Buddha statue. And you probably can't smell it, but a really quite
strong smell of incense. But if you want to see the Buddha and you don't want to take off your shoes, you can do that too.
Just walk around the outside and peak in through this door, and you can see the
Buddha with your shoes on. Now, in addition to koi fish, there's also wild peacocks here. We didn't see any of the peacocks, but we did see a black Swan. There's also a lot of wild
cats that live around here. In addition to being
just a touristy temple, it's also really popular
place for weddings. So if you're getting married, you could consider this
for that event as well. But if you're coming
to Hawaii and you want to see more off the beaten
path tourist attractions, well check out right here for my off the beaten
path Hawaii playlist. Or see more of my Hawaii videos, like cheap eats in Waikiki, the best hotels in Waikiki.
You'll find those in my Hawaii playlist of all Hawaii videos in
the description below. As usual, we want to say goodbye, because we'll see you
in one of those videos. (bell gong).
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