Day Trippin'

There's nothing like a visit from a spontaneous friend to inspire adventure. Our original plan to visit the northern coast was foiled by infrequent buses so decided to head south instead. We hopped a train and a bus for our day trip to Awaji Island, just south of Kobe.

After disregarding the map, finding a dead end, and relaying on signposts, we made it to our first objective, the Water Temple. Honpukuji was a small Shingon temple built in the most untraditional way I have ever seen. Walking up the stone path, we were confronted with a modern cement wall. We climbed up to the top and were met with a round pond that would be filled with lotus in the summer, but was empty now. In the middle of the pond was a long staircase down - the temple was under the pond! Built in a round shape with undecorated cement and bright red wooden interior, this temple was a wonderful combination of modern architecture and traditional decoration. We were surprised that we were the only visitors to such an interesting temple.

We wandered down to the coast for lunch at a little restaurant, where we learned from the owner that Awaji Island is famous for its onions. Apparently, they are especially sweet. In order to demonstrate this, she gave each of us a package of dried sweet onions as a gift.

After lunch we went over to the beach, where I collected some random sea shells, and then we decided to go try to find what we called "The Tall Man." We had seen the picture in a brochure of a 100 meter tall statue of a man at the Awaji Peace Park. We didn't think it would be too far to walk, so we started out. 45 minutes and 3.5 miles later, 15 minutes after it had closed, we got to the Tall Man. He was actually a statue of Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion. We took pictures of him, the small Statue of Liberty to the side (why it was there, I have no idea), and the sunset off the coast. Then there was the problem of getting back. We tried to hitchhike, but that didn't work, so we found a bus and made our way back to the bridge to cross back to the mainland.

The Pearl Bridge is really an amazing bridge. I don't know how long it is, but it's pretty long. The best thing about it, though, is that they light it up at night in all sorts of colors. And the colors change! The best view is when it is rainbow colored, but this only happens for 5 minutes every hour. We waited through the blues and greens, and the reds and purples for the 5 minutes of beautiful lights. It was truly spectacular!

On our way home, we stopped in Kobe for some wonderful Sri Lankan food, and then headed home for a great sleep. It was a wonderful way to spend a vacation day. I was worried I was going to be studying or reading or sitting around doing nothing this winter break, but thanks to vacation friends, it looks like I'm gonna be quite busy!