My First Temple

I saw my first temple on Friday. My students were testing all week, so on Friday they were rewarded with a school "picnic," which was actually a field trip to Onomichi, town 2 hours away from Kure. Only the first year students went to Onomichi; 2nd and 3rd years had different destinations, respectively. So a little over two hours after boarding the bus, we arrived at Senkoji temple. I learned that the singular word, "temple" is slightly misleading. It actually refers to many temples, all clustered together. The temple above is the biggest one, the main Senkoji temple. It is a giant bell that people ring after praying for happiness. There were many other smaller temples strewn about the mountain, though.

All sorts of little praying statues and rocks with inscriptions I couldn't read.

All those little pink things are tiny figurines of the Buddhist god who is responsible for saving the lives of children. This god seemed to be really popular at Senkoji... those little pink guys were everywhere. I didn't bother to do an in-depth translation of the sign, but from what I can read, this particular shrine is meant for lovers. Maybe fertility? I hope I didn't stand there too long.

This shrine was another happiness deal. I actually did this one. You throw in an offering, pray for happiness, and then pull on this long rope of wooden balls. It makes a clacking noise... pretty cool actually.

There was another shrine located up a rocky path that you could only reach by climbing. This is one of the teachers I teach with every week, Mr. Koguchi. He actually climbed thhe whole thing and did whatever it is people do up there. I wanted to climb it, but I was wearing tight jeans. Plus i probably would have broken something.

One of the other cool things about the area is that it used to be a theme park. There was this random giant ferris wheel overlooking the Inland Sea I wanted to ride so bad.

All my 1st-year baseball boys. The whole team has shaved heads. Two of my favorite students are in this picture... the second and fourth from the right in the front. One is just precious, the other is really into English, so he tries really hard in class and always listens. It's refreshing.

Some of my girls. They really do always make the peace sign in pictures. It's eerie.

Onomichi has a beautiful port.

Somehow we lucked out and got a bus equipped with a karaoke machine. I can't tell you what a delight it is to be stuck in a bus full of Japanese people singing karoke. Pictured above is one of the 1st-year teachers belting a lovely rendition of "Linda Linda." Good thing I didn't want to nap on the bus or anything.

So that was the trip in a nutshell. I finally gave into the annoying ketai charm obsession. I bought a little gold jingling owl, or "fukurou," which is a symbol for happiness. It's pretty cute, but kind of annoying. It's just constantly jingling. Jingle jingle.