hiking

, , , , , , , , , ,

Cherry blossom dream come true at Mt. Fuji shrine

, , , , , , , , , ,

The previous post in this series is here..

Our second stop in the Mt. Fuji area was to climb up a bill to the Arakurayama shrine and see views of the valley and Mt. Fuji from this hill top shrine.

We were told that it was a pretty hard hike. My friends son was not feeling well that morning and he braved it to this point but needed rest. So four of us went up. We promised to do our best to go as fast as we could and come back. There was a short drive from Lake Kawaguchiko to a parking lot for this shrine. We crossed a road and were faced with a bunch of steps that keep coming.

The beauty was that there were cherry blossoms everywhere at this high altitude. We thought Kyoto was our last interaction. This was mind boggling. We enjoyed the hike to the top, got to soak in some amazing views and came back down.

Here are the photos..

and a video highlight reel..

Every stop on this day was one upping the previous stop.. that in the next post..

, , , , , , , , , , ,

The cherry blossoms - reason for the whole trip

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Previous post in this series is here..

It was 3PM when we came out of the Shinkansen to Osaka station. We were seeing on social media that we were already a week late and the Cherry Blossoms were already on their way to falling off. By the time we reached Kyoto and Tokyo, there would be no blossoms. So if we wanted to see them in Osaka, there was one place on the hill to go see them. The Katsuoji temple!

It was an hour by car and they closed on the dot. We decided to grab two taxis again and just made a dash to the temple. An hour later we were dropped off outside the temple. There was a line for tickets. Yet again, Jr. came to the rescue by buying the tickets from her phone as we were going to the place. We went straight in with the “web tickets”. The temple is just beautiful. The cherry blossoms were still there. The whole place was surreal and immaculate. There were cute mini versions of the shinto gods everywhere.. placed on rocks, trees, in the water..

There were six locations which had stamps in different colors. You got a card at the entrance. If you put all stamps on them, you got a nice composite picture with the stamps. We made it to all the spots in the map, got the stamps and were literally the last visitors to be kicked out of the temple complex. We were all tired but happy. It was nice and cool in the hill. There were still a few taxis waiting. So we were lucky to get two taxis to go to our next destination.

Way too many photos post edit. Have created two galleries..

Portrait gallery

The final image after we stamped the card in all six locations.. The best one is mine as I used multiple alignment marks like a real integration engineer would!

Here is a short video of Katsuoji temple visit..

We were all happy at the end of the entire trip that we decided to go up to this temple even after an all day Hiroshima visit. We never saw Cherry blossoms like this after that day in Kyoto or Tokyo.

Our day was not over. The temple closes at 5:15 sharp. We got out at 5:14 PM. There was an hour plus drive back towards busy streets. Will pick it up in the next post..

, , , , , , , , , ,

Bear Creek (கரடி சிற்றோடை) trail hike

, , , , , , , , , ,

There are no bears .. or creeks for that matter at Bear Creek trail. There are no view points that go as far as the eye can see either. Giant redwoods everywhere, the sunlight filtering through those trees, moss, ferns and lichens, paths that curve around to add to the mystique, a final loop that has the clouds condensing and making rain on one half of the loop and you walk into nice and bright sunshine on the other half !

A lavender meadow being created by the park authorities on the knoll high up.

We spent this morning doing an 8 mile+ hike in this beautiful place. It is our second visit.

As usual, we did have chai and biscuits after starting our way back.

Here are the photos..

and a video highlights reel..

A morning well spent!

Copyright © 2012, Sundar Narayanan. All rights reserved.