Sunday I spent at home, just moping around a while. Monday I spent doing things I had neglected the day before, and venturing into the outside world to obtain groceries to sate my hungry tummy. I ate pretty much everything I bought that day too - my hollow leg actually ended up being filled. Tuesday, I felt guilty enough about wasting two days that I worked up the courage to go, all by myself, to Yamadera - a place I had heard was very pretty, and it more than lived up to my expectations.
Yamadera is a small town, with a set of shrines and temples accessible by stairway going up the side of a mountain. At the base of the climb are a few temples and shops. In front of one of the temples, they had a box with incense bundles you could leave a coin for, and a large pot for burning them in as an offering. Along the way, were little papers and trinkets you could buy for one or two hundred yen (about a buck or two). I collected a few, but I have no idea what they say - one of them is a half of a yin-yang symbol, of which the color has some significance; and the other two I assume have my fortune, and I was supposed to use to tie on somewhere with my wishes. I reached the gate, paid my entry fee, and began my climb, surrounded almost the entire way with little statues of what I think were Buddhas, wind catchers, and flowers. Every bend in the stairs had a small platform with a larger statue. After climbing out of the gigantic trees, the stairway went past buildings and gardens, all the way up to another temple. It was really very neat, and it smelled *fabulous*. I started taking pictures too late and missed the part in the trees (I took photos on my way down instead of up), because it gets dark very early here. It started raining when I was back near the bottom, just in time to get wet on my way back to the train station. Monday I am taking Dane, so he can experience it and I can get the rest of my pictures - besides, it smells so good!
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