Sanuk Canadian

Last week, I joined my monthly mountaineering group for a New Year hike in Kanagawa. Located south of Lake Tanzawa, we planned a mochi themed hike up Mount Oono. Mochi is pounded rice cakes and are traditionally eaten during the New Year holidays. The mountain is not a giant, rising only 723.1 meters high. The meet up location was Yaga station on the JR Gotemba line. This line is unique in that you cannot access the train using an electronic Pasmo/ Suica card. Tickets must be bought beforehand! Information on various electronic train cards in Japan is HERE . (via Japan Guide) Yaga station sign: Yaga station:  From the mountain hut style station, we turned right, following the road to a suspension bridge. Here, we spotted the first trail marker: The sign reads: Oono Mountain Hiking Course Crossing the suspension bridge:  From the end of the bridge, hikers should turn left. From that point onward, are many trail signs pointing the way. The hike...

Despite my pre-graduate studies having begun, I did manage to slip out of my apartment yesterday to enjoy some fresh air in the mountains. Close to the more famous, Ooyama, lies two smaller mountains called: Iiyama and Shiroyama. Their respected kanji characters mean: rice mountain and white mountain. In Japan, it's traditional to visit a shrine or temple after the New Year for prayers; I hadn't done so, so a friend and I hiked up the part of the mountain to visit Iiyama Temple to give prayers. It was here, I took photos using my cell phone, as I had forgotten to bring my camera.  Unfortunately, my cell phone camera's quality is quite poor, so the photos aren't high resolution. I'm very sorry, but hope you can get a sense of the temple grounds via the pictures. Enjoy! The front gate of the temple, featuring a God guarding the way:  After climbing some steep steeps, we entered the temple's main grounds. Featured up front was a caldron in which incense st...