at 9:00 to a nearby garden and then will walk to the train station at 11 to wait for the bullet train to Osaka. There we will ride the airport We didn't walk this morning as we had to leave early for our trip to the islands. John didn't come on the tour as he was having a little tummy trouble and thought it best if he had a slow day. Today was a real transportation mish-mash. We left the hotel at 7:40 by taxicab to be dropped at the bus station. The regular highway bus drove us through the mountains and onto a series of four bridges (one of which is the world's longest cable bridge) onto the islands in the Inland Sea. After getting off the bus on Omishima Island, we were picked up by a jumbo taxi (van) and driven to the Oyamazumi Shrine. This is the shrine of warriors and the sea. We saw two of the oldest camphor trees in Japan. One was 2600 years old and the other 3000 years old. The taxi driver then drove us over a bridge onto Ikuchi Island. Here we visited the IkuoHirayama Museum of Art. He was a native son who went to Hiroshima to study art and survived the bombing of Hiroshima. He spent his life seeking the origin of Japanese culture produce by Buddhism and traveled the Silk Road to sketch the scenery and the people. He traveled and painted along more than 200,000 miles. His art was contemporary, but captured the spirit of the older Japanese paintings. He passed away last year. Our next stop was to the Kosanji Temple. We ate a picnic lunch in the temple courtyard. Junko had brought rice and salmon "sandwiches" wrapped in nori, rolls filled with bean paste, almond cheese crackers (yum), chocolate filled cookies and fresh tangerines (they grow on the islands along with lemons and limes). Kelly brought a package of rice crackers and Lana contributed a box of assorted maple leaf pancakes (from our trip yesterday): chocolate filled, bean paste, green tea, and custard. We truly had a feast! We saw some people from the temple burning tea whisks. Junko said that because the tea service is rather sacred, you don't toss the used items, but bring them to the temple on the appropriate day and they are incinerated by the priests. The temple was founded by Kozo Kosanji. This man lost his father at an early age and his mother single-handedly raised he and his younger brother in the 1890's when being a single mother was rather rare. To thank his mother for her devotion, he built her a lovely villa - just magnificent: lovely painted woodwork and ceilings (see photo), beautiful gardens, lovely wooden floors. Some of the rooms were covered in tatami mats and some of the mats had wonderful Chinese oriental rugs on top of them. Kozo became a Buddhist priest and built the temple to pray for his deceased mother. The temple is patterned after notable temples in Japan. I must say it was the most colorful temple we visited (see photo of temple door). There was a lovely koi (see photo) pond with pink and purple water lilies in it. We walked up the hill above the temple to a garden made of white marble. The views were spectacular from here and the sculpture was quite lovely. On the way back down, Dave, Kelly and I walked through a cave system which runs under the main temple. There were hundreds of Buddhas and a series of paintings on the wall depicting Hell and redemption. We left the temple area and walked down a small shopping street. The town was rather sad as they don't get a lot of visitors except for those who come to the museum and the temple. Many of the stores were shuttered. There were a few food stores with produce and dried octopus (a specialty of the area). We did find a confectioner's store where they sold lemon cookies so, of course, we bought a box. We will bring them on the plane in case we get hungry. We met up at the ferry dock and took a 25 minute ride back to the mainland where we caught a train back to Hiroshima. Dave and I stopped in the food market in the train station to pick up some of the almond cheese crackers for our trip. We got back to the hotel and had about 40 minutes until dinner. We ate in the hotel dining room and had a lovely dinner - without chopsticks! Junko said we have to get used to using forks and knives again because we could be going home tomorrow. Two of the highlights of the dinner were cream of pumpkin soup and concord grape sorbet! Tomorrow is our last day in Japan. We will take a walk with Junko at 9 to a nearby garden and then walk to the train station at 11. We will take the bullet train to Osaka and then the airport limousine to the airport which is on an island. So it will be Sayonara to Japan. We have had a wonderful time and have learned much about the culture and the people. We will miss our new friends, but it surely will feel good to see our old frends and family and sleep in our own bed!
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