We woke up super early today and meditated with a monk at his shrine. Something that surprised me was that if you get distracted or your back begins to hurt, you bring your hands together, bow to the monk, and he hit you with a rod. My back did begin to hurt – I also thought, “When’s the next time I can get hit by a monk?”, so I gave this method a try – it shockingly helped. While it was hard to focus occasionally, it was a cool experience.

Afterwards we visited one of my favorite shrines, the one with all of the statues in it. I couldn’t take pictures due to it being a sacred site, but nevertheless I loved the visual and the story behind it; where the emperor wanted to show his strength and security so he created this temple.

We also got to walk around a small marketplace with incredible views – at the base of the shrine where the people jumped off and survived – and got to have make tea at a tea ceremony. I piqued my interest how strong the tea was. Apparently it’s made with either less water or more tea and is very caffeinated.

Afterwards, Megan and I went to the Pokémon center where they had Pikachu wearing a kimono greeting the customers and where I spent a surprisingly small amount of money. Later that night we met up at Round1 for bowling and I got two strikes.