桜山のちかく。 Near Sakura Mountain

I've actually forgotten the name of the place we went to, but it was close to a place called Sakura Mountain. Which was more of a hill then a mountain. Anyways, it happened to be a national holiday in Japan. It's something like Sports day, or something. But there was no school and it gave me an opportunity to go out with my host family and see a park that was very close by to the house that I'm staying in.





I believe these flowers are called Cosmo Flowers. A 10 minute walk from my house and you can come to this place and it's just a very large field with these flowers. It's very pretty.

After I took some picture and strolled around for bit, we went to an open area a put down a blanket and ate lunch. After which I played soccer with the kids. Then I did some "sumo" wrestling with Kanade. We really didn't wrestle, what she really wanted to do is stand on opposite sides of the sumo ring and then run at each other. :/

But after we ate and played around for a bit, we walked a little bit more to a pond.


This is a cool little place. It's nice, quiet and really pretty. The pond is filled with koi fish and it even had a turtle too. But my favorite part of this little excursion was a temple just next to the pond.


Inside the gate to this temple are four statues. Arata, the host mother, explained that these four statues were four gods of the heavens. North, south, east, and west. They watch over the temple and are the 'security' of the premises. As you go past the gate you get to the shrine.

If I remember correctly this shrine was built in 1701. Which is older then my country. Before I entered the shrine I had to wash my hands. And I don't know if you can see it in the picture but there are 3 ropes that hang from the ceiling. There are bells that you hit with the ropes. That way you can alert the gods that you're coming.

They didn't want me taking pictures inside so there aren't any pictures of that. But inside was another statue. This particular god was a woman, and she was the god of good fortune. So there is a place where you can make an offering and throw in a few yen. That way, I'm guessing, you will become very fortunate.

But overall it was a very cool experience. Soon I'm going back to the pond. There is a building there where they hold tea ceremonies. I don't drink tea myself, but I think it should be cool to watch.

-Blake