(PICTURE: Masumi and Kensuke making tracks on the snow.)Masumi, Kensuke and I have had so many memories together in such a short period. On my last day in Koryama we had time for one more. I had heard about a place with "800 Buddhas" and asked Masumi and Kensuke about it. Despite being Koryama natives, neither had ever heard of it. I peaked their curiosity though and we ended up getting the location information from Yuya. On Sunday afternoon we headed out to the "800 Buddha" temple.
The place was in the middle of nowhere. It was on some back-road highway that Kensuke said he had never traveled on before. We found the spot and it ended up being pretty magical. First off, we were the only people there. Secondly, it had been snowing so everything was covered with a beautiful layer of white. Thirdly, it turns out that there were only a couple of Buddhas. However, there were a ton of other little statues each with different expressions, poses and looks. I told Masume and Kensuke that we had to look at all the statues and then each choose the one we liked best.
Here's a little montage of some of the statues. Feel free to comment which you like best...
(PICTURE: Kensuke chose the man with the biggest smile.)
(PICTURE: Masumi chose the good parent.)
(PICTURE: I chose the guy with the chubby cheeks.)
