Wanting to get out of the city and into the woods today before everyone else, we took an early bus from Himeji to the base of Mt. Shosha.
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| From a different and slower perspective.
Unlike the high speed trains where the scenery flies by, the bus wove its way through narrow village streets allowing us to see suburbia with enough to time to actually focus on one building at a time. With few exceptions, our observation seems to be that most houses are built in the low lands and few homes are built on mountainsides. The flora on the mountains is incredibly dense and thick with greenery; Japanese maples and tall straight cedars.
As soon as the houses stop, the forest begins, and all trails start upward. It is believed that hiking to the temple on Mt Shosha as a ritual, cleanses and purifies the body and mind. We don't start at the bottom however, and take the ropeway or tram to a middle high level on the mountain and walk from that point. Maybe we will only get partially purified.
Before we began our hike, we enjoy the scenery at the tram moves us upward.
The trail winds up the mountain through statues of Buddha with definite Hindu influence. Buddha grows more arms and hands as we move up the mountain.
    
Hindu dieties possess many arms to fight off cosmic forces and can achieve many objectives simultaneously. We come to the main gate of the temple complex that dates back to the 6th century.
  
We come to the main part of the Temple Complex and the biggest building. The Maniden, dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy, was constructed A.D. 970, it later burnt down to the ground 1000 years later and was reconstructed and finished in 1932.
        
The next set of three buidings built in the 16th century are the ones we think were used as a scene set for the movie the Last Samaurai.
Jogyodo (above)- Where ceremonial music and graceful dance was performed.
The Daikodo (above) was a training ground for priests and was the great lecture hall and incarnation of Truth. Seems we need to have more buildings today dedicated to truth.
and the Jikido, training hall and boarding place for priests.
 
Many faithful bring books to the temple for monk (yogi) to sign. We think he is writing blessings, words of wisdom. The couple below is checking out what he has written in their book.
We continue our walk through the forest and by other lesser temples, buildings, and Buddha gardens.
   
We have missed lunch and stop at a little cafe on our way down the mountain. Where we sit under a large red umbrella and watch the fish swimming in a pond,
        
We continue down the path returning to our hotel late in the afternoon. Too late for an afternoon in Kobe.
As a pebble is thrown in a pond and ripples outward, let there be peace in the world, and let it begin with me.
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