The morning after our Halloween party we were up bright and early for a trip to Mt. Shosha with Audrey's Shogai students. We had been looking forward to this trip for some time as Mt. Shosha is one of the big "things to do" in Himeji. If you have seen the Tom Cruise movie "The Last Samurai" then you have seen some of the temples at the top of this mountain. Our students love telling us how Tom Cruise was here and how some of them actually caught a glimpse of him. There are two ways up the mountain. You can either climb it, which takes about 30 minutes or you can take the rope way. After a long Halloween evening we went for the rope way. The rope way drops us off about 3/4 of the way up the mountain so we got to hike the rest of it with Audrey's students. There were about 20 of us all together and we enjoyed the beautiful scenery, the cool weather and of course the wonderful company. They showed us all of the beautiful buildings, shrines and other amazing traditional architecture. When we got to the spot where parts of the movie was filmed we stopped for a break and to have a picnic lunch. Audrey and I brought our old faithful PB and J but we were also bombarded with tons of Japanese "picnic" food to share as well. After lunch we played a rousing game of bingo. It lasted for about 30 minutes as we had to play until everyone got a "bingo". One of Audrey's students had even brought enough prizes for everyone so we all won something whether we finished 1st or 20th! After lunch and Bingo we finished hiking around the top of the mountain. We took a bunch of wonderful pictures and had a fantastic time with these beautiful people. We were a little sad that the leaves had not changed colors as much as we had hoped so Audrey and I are planning a return visit when it gets a little cooler so we can enjoy more of the fall colors at their best. We hope all is well in your neck of the woods. We miss and love you all!
The view from the rope way!
Does this look familiar? Well it should if you have seen "The Last Samurai"
Me and the Ladies!
Me and my lovely lady:)
What a beautiful day!
I love the architecture...
I guess some important people are buried here.
2 comments:
So fun to see all the great pictures of Japan and Mt. Shosha. I loved the picture of both of you dressed in the Japanese clothes. Wendy sent me your blogspot so it was fun to see what you have been doing. I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving. We sure miss you!
Reading your blog on thanksgiving day. I'm thankful for you two, for your servant hearts and Christ-like character. Never seen the movie but the architecture is truly beautiful. I hope you get to see the leaves changing colors eventually.
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