During one of our day trips from Osaka, we hiked up to the mountain temple of Shoshazan-Engjoyi. Incedentally, this is where the film The Last Samauri was filmed.

It was raining the whole time, but we decided to walk it anyway. Most of us had the clear umbrellas that are failry common throughout the country.

[clear umbrellas]

The temple is actually a group of about 50 temples that sprawled across the face of the mountain. There were a lot of interesting things along the trail, including gravestones, statues, temples, and more. My favorite item was the Japanese Dragon fountain in front of one of the shrines.

[Dragon fountain]

The mountain was covered in a thick forest, which looked cool under the rainy gray sky. Strangely enough, the trees and foliage didn’t look too much different than what one would find in a forest part of Michigan. The trees look a little different, but its eerily similar.

[Tree]

The various shrines and temples had Buddhist and Shinto statues similar to the other temples we had visited. However, these temples had actual monks who I believe live in the temples. One monk followed me around one of temples, pointing out various features and explaining them in Japanese. Although I didn’t understand much of what he said, I was once again reminded of the politeness and social consciousness of Japanese people.

[Monk]

The group had split up to explore the various temples, so I rode the gondola back down the mountain with just a small group. Waiting at the base of the mountain, I explored a magnificent fountain. There’s really nothing like this in the United States.

[Fountain]