Jinja and Shoga: Life in the Land of the Rising Sun

This morning we decided on a change of venue for our usual walk and went hiking in the nearby mountains (foothills?) instead. We discovered a beautiful little shrine up there a while back and had been wanting to explore the hiking trail that led up the mountain above it.


The sign at the trailhead stated that it would take about 45 minutes up to the top of Mt. Yakushidake. The good news was, it was a pretty quick hike....but the 'top' was little more than a small shrine at a point on the trail, nothing of note really. Still, it was a peaceful trip with some nice views of Mt. Fuji!


On the drive back, we took an alternate road and were able to see lots of fishermen out in the river. I'm not sure what they were fishing for, seeing as my usual experiences with fish just involve eating chunks of them in sushi bars.

The red flowers in the photos are called 'higanbana' in Japanese, and 'red spider lily' in English. The direct translation of 'higan' can be interpreted as 'equinoctial week' or 'one's dearest wish', at least from what I found. I'm going to go with the first definition, since today is the fall equinox, and these only bloom in autumn. (FYI 'hana', or 'bana' in this case, means 'flower').