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!!