Favorite day of the trip?

Shoshazan (Engyoji Temple) - Today we went to Mt. Shosha to see the Engyoji Temple. In order to get to the mountain you take a gondola like thing up to a part of the mountain and then you hike the rest of it. All along the hike there are smaller shrines and statues of Buddha and different Buddhist deities. About halfway up, there is a smaller shrine with a gift shop and a place to pray. When we got to the top of the mountain it was beautiful. There are these four buildings that are all connected that are called "halls" meant for different things, like meditation, school, and dining. In front of one of the halls, was one of the Buddhist monks that lives there. I got to meet him and let us go into the meditation hall, which was really just this one room that was almost pitch black but had a giant surreal Buddha statue lit up in the middle of it. I ended up sitting in there with the monk and meditating there with him for 20 minutes. The way I had to sit was a little uncomfortable, but it felt like 5 minutes instead of 20. When I first saw the Buddha statue I was incredibly moved. It was honestly one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen. The monk told us at the end that too often we focus on the past and do not realize what is happening in the present. To exemplify this, he clapped. He said that we noticed the clap right then and we were not focused on anything else but that clap. I feel like that is advice that I need to listen to because so I often I focus on things that have happened in the past and do not focus on the good things I have going on in the present.