Road trip to Mt. Shosha

Makoto and Kiyoko picked me up in the very early morning for our drive to Mt. Shosha. It was a good thing that we started early as it really heated up around noon.

We headed to Engyoji Temple, founded about 1000 years ago by Shoku, a Buddhist priest who received special spiritual enlightenment from Monju, the god of wisdom and intellect. It's also famous for being filmed in the movie, The Last Samurai. But besides that, it really is a beautiful place. The old, wooden buildings are amazing and it's a great hike (although we took the cable car first then hiked up).

There was one monk that had really good English and he was able to explain things to me. I also finished my temple book and am now on my second one.











Then we went to Kakogawa for katsu meishi. Apparently it's very popular in Kakogawa, and Makoto found a 'highly recommended' katsu meishi restaurant on the internet. It was really tasty. A piece of beef, breaded and fried, then sliced and placed on top of rice with a stew-like gravy poured on top, served with some boiled cabbage on the side. After a morning of hiking, it was perfect.

Our lunch set also came with dessert and tea/coffee served in dainty Wedgewood teacups and saucers.





I was really tired from all the walking but managed to make it to Sanners for dinner. Claire is in Japan visiting for a week or so. It was really good to see her again and hear about how she's settled back into Perth. We went to Lois Cafe for dinner, followed by dessert at Mother Moon Cafe.