The Overdue Update
Sorry for the wait everyone. Here's the way overdue update. Actually, its just a continuation of my last entry. I will try and spread out my experiences of the past month over a few entries in a span of a few days. If I try to do so in one entry, it may be much too long for normal people to read and I'd spend way too much time typing it out.
So after the enormous amounts of stairs at 羽黒山(Mt. Haguro/Hagurosan). We continued our tour to 竿(Zao). This place is a sacred/holy place that contains a natural holy hot spring. The spring is really hot and contains quite a few natural minerals. There is a small trail of steps that is needed to take to get to the spring, but nothing like the one I had to previously trek.
At the entrance of the trail, there was another water fountain with a wonderful dragon sculpture.
The trail had many flags/posters of holy writing bordering the trail
At the end of the trail, we reached a small holy place where a priest told us to rub this paper charms over our bodies to rid ouselves of evil spirits. After doing so, he recited a small chant and blessed/brushed us over with holy paper.
Here's the picture of the paper charms we rubbed ourselves all over with.
After cleansing ourselves, we took off our shoes and walked around the hot spot/spring. And man was it hot, It kinda felt like my feet were burning.
Here's a picture of the place from the trail.
Afterwards, we headed back and rested our feet at the foot onsen.
This felt really relaxing. It was a bit hot, but not so much that it was overbearing. Afterwards, we headed out and left. At the entrance of most of these holy places is a huge kanji structure. The one here at Zao was especially huge.
Notice the car on the bottom left hand corner. Gives you and idea of how huge the structure was.
So that concludes my sightseeing trip. As for what I did afterward, my co-workers had another party at a restaraunt near the town community center. I don't know what for, but it's always fun to spend time with them with they drink, any day of the week =P.
So after the enormous amounts of stairs at 羽黒山(Mt. Haguro/Hagurosan). We continued our tour to 竿(Zao). This place is a sacred/holy place that contains a natural holy hot spring. The spring is really hot and contains quite a few natural minerals. There is a small trail of steps that is needed to take to get to the spring, but nothing like the one I had to previously trek.
At the entrance of the trail, there was another water fountain with a wonderful dragon sculpture.
The trail had many flags/posters of holy writing bordering the trail
At the end of the trail, we reached a small holy place where a priest told us to rub this paper charms over our bodies to rid ouselves of evil spirits. After doing so, he recited a small chant and blessed/brushed us over with holy paper.
Here's the picture of the paper charms we rubbed ourselves all over with.
After cleansing ourselves, we took off our shoes and walked around the hot spot/spring. And man was it hot, It kinda felt like my feet were burning.
Here's a picture of the place from the trail.
Afterwards, we headed back and rested our feet at the foot onsen.
This felt really relaxing. It was a bit hot, but not so much that it was overbearing. Afterwards, we headed out and left. At the entrance of most of these holy places is a huge kanji structure. The one here at Zao was especially huge.
Notice the car on the bottom left hand corner. Gives you and idea of how huge the structure was.
So that concludes my sightseeing trip. As for what I did afterward, my co-workers had another party at a restaraunt near the town community center. I don't know what for, but it's always fun to spend time with them with they drink, any day of the week =P.