Day 6 - Excursion

Today we were taken on an excursion by our Shinjo hosts. It was a very cold and foggy morning but students boarded the bus with enthusiasm and serenaded the teachers with Justin Bieber and Spice Girls songs for most of the 1.5 hour journey to our first destination.

We visited a famous and very old Buddhist temple that houses one of the only self-mummified monks in Japan. The process of self-mummification was very interesting to hear about and students will be sure to explain more about this upon their return to Australia.

After the temple visit we visited Haguro-san Mountain where we walked through the forest and saw a beautiful 5 storey pagoda, waterfalls and a huge Japanese cedar tree that is over 1000 years old. This experience allowed us to appreciate the Japanese concept of ‘shinrinyoku’ (forest bathing, or relaxing and taking in the beauty of a forest).

Following this we went to the summit of the mountain where there is a shrine and currently a lot of snow! Students played in the snow and enjoyed snowball fights. It was wonderful to see many of our students playing in fresh snow for the first time - certainly a memorable experience for all! 

Tonight we will enjoy our last night with host families before heading to the neon lights of Tokyo tomorrow. Students will be sad to leave their host families as they have become accustomed to using Japanese in daily life and have formed strong friendships with their host brothers and sisters.