I was pretty tired after that whole Osaka ordeal on Friday. But I had to go on a class field trip to Mt. Hiei on Saturday.
Mount Hiei has a bunch of temples and a monastary dedicated to the Tendai sect of Buddhism. It's kind of known for its crazy 'Marathon Monks', whom are some crazy monks that decide to undergo this program called the Sennicni Kaihogyo or the 1000 Day Mountain Marathon. Over the course of seven years, these monks will run/walk 40 to 80 kilometers a day depending how far along they are in the program. Not too many people complete the entire 1000 day trial, but a significant number will do it for 100 days.
It was pretty cool going up there. We got to walk around, see the temple walk along one of the paths that those crazy circumambulating monks (according to our teacher they prefer that term to 'marathon monks') walk everyday for their program, and visit other sacred sites. We even went to the temple where the monks completing the entire 1000 day Kaihogyo, as a part of the program will stay awake and fast for 9 days. 9 days of staying up and praying and chanting with no food. Craziness. No one was fasting when we visited and the place was pretty empty, but it's always cool to go and see something that you learn about in class. It's cool getting to see that yes, these places actually do exist.
Afterwards, Kenny and David talked me into going with them to Osaka to meet up with Chris to eat at a crazy good sushi restaurant and head over to a bar. I'm a pushover. But once again, this was the good kind of peer pressure. We were pretty late in meeting up with Chris, but he's a cool guy and was pretty understanding. Then off to Osaka and the sushi place.
So that sushi, was probably the best I have ever had. Ever. So much better than that sushi place in yokohama. I don't even usually go for that whole raw fish vibe. I mean, I'll eat it but come on, if I'm paying for food, I expect you to cook it for me. I can not cook food for myself. In fact, I'd say I've done pretty well for myself these past 21 years without cooking food for myself. Moral of the story: When you feed me, cook for me. But these guys can not cook for me anytime. So good. And the slabs of fish that they put over the rice were so generous. I should have taken pictures of our spread but I was too busy eating and enjoying the goodness. Oh, and the unagi, the unagi had a fat slab of eel deliciousness on the rice. Ahhh.
Oh, and I tried Toro for the first time, the fatty belly part of the fish. So good. So good. I never really understood it when people said that sushi was so good it just melt in your mouth. You know what melts in your mouth? Ice. Ice and yum, ice cream melts in your mouth. But this fish, for lack of a better word melts in your mouth. According to David it was no Sukiji, but I didn't eat there, so I was content. More then content. I think I'll go on being content for the next week or so thanks to that sushi.
Then the bar. Where we had a few drinks (I actually only had one because drinks are expensive and I couldn't be tipsy if I was traveling home alone) before heading home. More mad dashes and running to get home, but tonight the running paid off and I made all of my connections in a timely manner.
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