Soji-ji

Five minutes on foot from the west exit of JR Tsurumi Station, the grounds of one of the two head temples of Soto Zen spread over a wooded hillside. Soji-ji was founded in 1321 by Keizan on the Noto Peninsula. A fire in 1898 destroyed most of it, and the head temple moved here, completing the move in 1911. That is why most of what you see dates from the 20th century: the Butsuden of 1915, the 1969 Sanmon, which the temple calls the largest reinforced-concrete gate in Japan, and the Daiso-do of 1965, with a hall of 1,000 tatami mats inside. Joining the halls is the Hyakken Roka, a 164-meter corridor wiped down by hand every day as part of monastic practice. The grounds are free to wander, but this is a working monastery and the halls are not open on demand: guided tours must be booked at least two weeks ahead, for at least ten people, or three if everyone takes the 3,500-yen vegetarian meal. Solo visitors do better at the monthly English zazen session, which starts at 10:00, costs 500 yen, needs no booking and ends with a tour of the monastery.