WHERE TO FIND THE RELICS OF ST. NICHOLAS OF JAPAN
First, you have to get to JR Nippori Station. Next, you will have to take the walk-way from the south exit, followed by a short stroll along Tennoji temple. Then you will arrive at YANAKA CEMETERY. That’s the name. Remember it.
Yes, St. Nicholas’ relics are located in a Japanese cemetery where some of the most famous people in Japanese history were buried including Tokugawa Yoshinobu (the last shogun in Japan) and Ichiyo Higuchi (he is a novelist and appears on the 5000 note bill).
The reason St. Nicholas’ relics were not exhumed and enshrined in a Church is that when the Orthodox Church requested to do so, the Japanese government insisted that he remain in the ground at their cemetery because St. Nicholas meant as much to the Japanese as to the Orthodox and the Japanese government wanted to keep him there in respect and honour to him. The Church respected this answer thus why St. Nicholas remains in Yanaka Cemetery to this day.
But.
It is not easy to get to his relics.
You need a key.
The key is necessary in order to unlock a special gated area where St. Nicholas and a couple other eminent people in Japanese Orthodox history are located.
They key is located at a little shack near by so ideally you should have a Japanese guide to get the key for you.
Once inside, you have as much time as you’d like to ask for his intercession.
DIRECTIONS TO YANAKA CEMETERY
Take the train to JR Nippori Station. (It is not in walking distance from the Cathedral).
Take the walk-way from the south exit.
Walk for a few minutes along Tennoji temple.
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