Tis the season for Shizuokans to bid Mt. Fuji farewell, as the air warms and hazes over the snowy peak, which fades away until fall.
The school year has ended, and with spring break's arrival one of my Shizuoka besties, Jackson, moved to Tokyo to begin a new teaching job there. The last weekend before break, we took a trip back up the Nihondaira, this time to actually visit the colorful shrine at the end of the ropeway.
A really nice old man took this photo, then almost fell down the stone stairs behind him:
Kunozan Toshogu is a Shinto shrine complex built in 1617 to honor the spirit of Tokugawa Ieyasu, a shogun from Shizuoka City who helped unify feudal Japan during the late 16th century. The complex contains all the original structures, meticulously upkept with bright paint and gold detail.
The school year has ended, and with spring break's arrival one of my Shizuoka besties, Jackson, moved to Tokyo to begin a new teaching job there. The last weekend before break, we took a trip back up the Nihondaira, this time to actually visit the colorful shrine at the end of the ropeway.
On the opposite side of the hill as the ropeway is a stone staircase overlooking the ocean and the strawberry greenhouses lining the coast. My guidebook states, "As you climb up the 1159 stone steps leading to the sacred grounds, you are purified by the magical power." But we went down the stairs instead of up.
Once on the coast, we enjoyed a pitcher of staggeringly sweet strawberry sangria, then took the bus back to central Shizuoka. School ended the following Wednesday, and the next weekend, Jackson moved, and Davin and I were off to Cambodia and Vietnam.
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