3000 treasures

We started with a 7:00am full Japanese-style breakfast of rice, miso soup, salmon, pickles, fried egg, yogurt drink, dried seaweed, and the ever popular "umeboshi," or pickled plum.  

That meal sent us off on our way for a one-hour mountain hike where various bear sighting have happened.

But never fear, they told us that we should just be noisy (not a problem, as the Trippers sang any number of often jungle-themed songs), and hit the occasional plank with a mallet to announce our presence to the bears.

We posed on a bridge with our best bear stances

Our walk also provided some unexpected wonders

We made it to our destination unscathed and arrived at what was to be perhaps our favorite temple complex of the many, many we have seen.  It holds, like others in Hiraizumi, UNESCO World Heritage Site status, and for a good reason as it contains somewhere in the ballpark of 3000 national treasures!  You're lucky to see two or three in many places, but 3000?  One such treasure was a building that is an ancient Noh theater stage.  The walkway on the left is the transition of the actors as they past from the spirit world to that of the human realm. 

There was also Konjiki-do, a gold-leaf covered temple built in the 9th century(!), that contains gorgeous pillars with glowing designs of mother of pearl inlay and exquisite carved statues.  That we had to keep as a visual memory as photography was not allowed.  The complex was so huge, and besides all the beautiful ancient shrines and temples, there were some other assorted images that made the journey special.

After that we ate lunch at a large shokudo and walked back to the station to catch a bus to to Japan's Grand Canyon, Geibi-kei.  We rode a boat powered by a young woman with a large pole for a 90-minute trek into the gorge.

 

There was abundant sun and on the return trip, our poleswoman sang a traditional folk song from the northern island of Hokkaido.  Please check out the YouTube link momentarily for a visual montage of the gorge with her powerful song as the sound track. 

Lastly, we returned to the onsen ryokan to bath and eat, and the Trippers diligently worked on their presentations for the KJ students as we draw nearer to the beginning of the homestay portion of the trip.  Only one more day of touring!

Oh, this is from a couple of days ago, but we had a bit of time to kill, so we demonstrated what can happen when you mess with Sensei (lol) - thanks Yokota-sensei for the expert photography.