There haven't been too many non-rainy days lately, so a couple weeks ago when there was a clear Sunday, I took advantage of it to climb Mt. Shosha one last time. I also needed more of an excuse to play with my new camera, too! Spending five hours on the mountain photographing everything definitely helped me to figure out more of my menu settings. It was a cloudy day, but occasionally the sun broke through.
First, some photos of Himeji spread out beneath Mt. Shosha! There are several points on the trail where you can get really great views of the city. Sometimes, on clear days, it's easy to spot the ocean; from some angles, you can even see Himeji Castle and Nagoyama Temple, though you'll need binoculars to get a clear view of them.
The ropeway cable cars come in two designs: Kuroda Kanbei, or Shiromaru-hime. Here's a photo of the latter, soaring over the city she represents!
Last year, I attempted to photograph all of the buddha statues lining the trail. But I missed two of them... so I decided, what better way to try out my camera than by making another attempt? This time I succeeded with all of the statues! So, here they are, in order from the start of the trail to the end.
Some of the statues bore handmade prayer bracelets, like this one above. I have no idea who puts them on the statues; perhaps visitors, maybe pilgrims, or even the monks who live on the mountain?
I've climbed Mt. Shosha more times than I can count (nearly 20, perhaps?), but this was the first time I've seen scarves draped on the statues. It was incredibly beautiful!
Yes... he's riding a turtle.
This has always been my favorite of the statues, because it always looks so... sassy. The scarf was a brilliant addition.
And finally... some pictures of the temples! The most important part, right?
I re-watched "The Last Samurai" recently, since it was added to Netflix. I recognized all of the temples they shot at, especially all of the Mt. Shosha scenes (and there were a lot of those). It was also weird, because the village and its location is nowhere near the mountain, and the terrain of it is totally off; but I only noticed that because of how much time I've spent in the area.
Tom Cruise is as unlikable as ever, though, but he's pretty popular here in Himeji. It's pretty common to be asked if you like him, and then they think I'm a weird foreigner when I say that I don't...
The first gate from the trail. Inside are two angry buddha statues, who traditionally protected the sanctity of the mountain from women. Oops.
Not too many flowers this time of year on Mt. Shosha, but I had to try photographing these teeny ones I spotted!
This is a really big tree between the two main temples. It would take several people to wrap their arms around its trunk. It's sort of fenced off, and there's Japanese signs explaining something important about it, but I couldn't tell you what.
In case you don't recognize it, here's the main temple from "The Last Samurai."
This is most likely the last time I will be going to Mt. Shosha before I leave Japan on the 28th. I will definitely miss it!
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