- 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)