The first video is a longer one, with the monks simply chanting. All of the next videos in this post are very short.
Then, one of the monks sat facing us and spoke to the group.
Everyone lined up and had a chance to go through the hall, to pray to the shrine in the back. We then left the premises, to go to a temple just nearby. Here, we watched the Goma Fire Ritual. A handy pamphlet was left in my room. Essentially, you could pay $30 to write up a wish, that would then be burned in holy fire the next morning.
The monk slowly built a fire and then burned the sticks with wishes on them. Occasionally, he would take something from small bowls and throw it into the fire. Near the end, he would take some thicker sticks and fan them into the fire. Once the fire died down, he walked around the room, shaking a rattle at people.
I decided to walk along the Women Pilgrims Course, a trail that started a little east of me and ran to the south of town, ending up to my west. This worked out well, since I wanted to check out two temple complexes around that area. Woman were not allowed into the town until 1872. Finding the exact starting point proved to be a bit difficult.
A tourist information center pointed me in the right general direction, but didn't explain exactly where to find it. I discovered that it started on the first floor of a two level parking garage, right near the bathrooms, just like most pilgrimage sites.
It started off with a bit of climbing before leveling out. There wasn't much to see aside from the forest itself. Eventually, I ran into a sign that forbid me from continuing on towards a temple, as it was used for monks to train.
The path opened up onto a small road. With no signs, I chose the right path, hoping that it continued the path. Again, the path split. I chose right. When I started seeing houses, I retraced my steps and took the other fork. That path led to a truck in need of an oil change, before also ending up in a neighborhood. I also found a sign post with an incredibly creepy looking person walking with a child on it.
With only fifteen minutes left on the path anyway, I gave up and continued into town. It let out right in front of one of the two temples I wanted to see, Kongobuji. According to a sign on a wall inside, it might be the mausoleum of an important Buddhist figure. Otherwise, it was a fairly standard temple.
A little further west was the Garan temple complex. It had one particularly beautiful building.
I also found an interesting insect, that I could not identify.
I went west and found the entrance back to the Women Pilgrims Course. Before I entered the temples, I figured that I would walk backwards until I found out where exactly I had gone wrong. However, then I came up with the idea of simply continuing the course from the west side of town. It continues a bit north, up a small mountain, and then east, were it descends into the edge of town.
There were a bunch of people at the top. I think I was able to see a baseball game from there.
The road down was peaceful and beautiful. It was a great way to end my final hike.
So, the internet up here in the mountains has been terrible today. It took many hours to upload all of these pictures. I plan to go for a night tour of the large cemetery here tonight, but I will save that for my post tomorrow.
It dawned on me this morning, while beginning the Women's trail, that this would likely be my last hike of the trip and that the temples today would be my final temples. I still have eight full days left, but they will not involve hikes or temples. I've really been enjoying the hikes, but I have a lot of other things to look forward to.
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