Flake in order to Sense

Okay, so you definitely have to be crazy to hike up the 1,368 steps it takes to get to the top of Kompirasan. It is another one of those temples in Japan, but way fun and really beautiful. It is on the mountainside as well and you can get a great view of the valley from the top. If you don't want to hike up the steps, they have little chair things called palaquinns. Basically it is a miniature house that seats one person (japanese style) with two bamboo poles coming out the sides. You sit in it and let these two guys carry you up. Way cool, but way expensive. We also ran into 2 huge groups of High School students. They were hillarious. One group was sitting all together and got really excited when they saw us, so we took their picture. They totally cheesed it up. In the other group there was a smaller group of about 10 boys that ended up kind of following us around and they decided to be brave and try to talk to us in English. It was way cute. I think the first guy that talked to us was dared to do it. Krazy japanese kids. The temple ground itself is really beautiful and peaceful. Kristen and I were just sitting and talking when a Japanese monk walked by on this little wooden walkway. Kristen turned to me and said "Amberlyn. We just watched a monk walk by." To which I replied, "Yes. And not just any monk. A japanese monk." Sometimes it amazes me that I am here!! It was also cool because they have tons of souvenier shopping outside the temple grounds, but only 5 people inside the temple grounds selling food products. We read in our guide book that these five vendors are the ancestors of the original five vendors that were the only ones allowed to vend inside the temple grounds when it first opened. How amazing!!

The day after we went to Hiroshima, we took a hop skip and a jump to the nearby island of Miyajima. It is a very famous island for the floating shrine they have there. Okay, so it really isn't floating, but it is built out over the ocean, and at high tide, the water comes up right underneath it. It was another one of those cool orange shrines (we know how I love those orange buildings). It is also famous for its rice scoopers and they have a huge one on display for all to look at. They also have a cool pagoda thing surrounded by cherr blossoms. Soooo beautiful!! There is a cool mountain as well where if you climb to the top you can see the main island of Honshu as well as our island of Shikoku. There were a ton of monkeys up there as well. YOu are advised not to feed them or look them in the eye. HMMM!! That kind of makes you wonder. They are famous for their maple leaf pasteries filled with anco, chocolate, or custard. I had the custard one. It was delicious. There are also a hundred million dear there and I made the mistake of buying food to feed them. I have never been attacked by bambi before, but after being attacked by 20 of them, I never want to do that again. They bite you and head butt you and all sorts of fun stuff. I definitely got a fun video of it and a key chain with a deer on it to remind me of my fun adventure.

Hiroshima has got to be one of the best places I have visited while I have been here in Japan. I went about 2 weeks ago with Kristen, Kira, and Jessica, on a Sunday night. What a spiritual and overwhelming experience. We went to the Peace Park there which is a dedicatory to the remembrance of all those who died in the Hiroshima Atomic bombing. They have a shelled out building there has was one of the few buildings left standing. It stands as a reminder to the world of the disasters that war and nuclear weapons can cause on mankind. They have an eternal flame as well and monument to the thousands of kids uprooted from their homes and brought to Hiroshima to work for the war effort and die for it as well. They have a monument to a girl who was dying of cancer so she folded 1000 paper cranes as a reminder to bring peace to the world. Her name was Sadako. You can even fold your own paper crane and they will put it up at the monument. I think the most overpowering place though was the Atomic bombing museum. It has all the facts behind the war, Hiroshima, and what really happened. It also shows pictures of the city before and after the bombing. They have four walls covered with letters from the Mayor of Hiroshima to countries that are still making and testing nuclear weapons (with the USA and Russia being the leaders), begging them to stop. I took a picture of the letter that was written to the Soviet Union on my actual birthday!! The saddest part was upstairs where they had remains of people, pictures, walls, clothing, accessories, and other things found after the bombing. You could listen to the story about all of them. It was so devastating. I have never felt such an array of feelings all at once. Sadness, happiness, peace, unrest, humility, anger, shame, love, bravery, depression, devastation, admiration, and even more that I cannot name. We even saw the story of one of the survivors. It was such a growing and learning experience. One which I will never forget!!