The FGL Program organized a trip to Yamadera, a temple in nearby Yamagata Prefecture, for the FGL undergraduate students. The Yamadera area is one of the many places in Tohoku where the Japanese haiku master Matsuo Basho (1644- 1694) stopped off to write a poem during his wanderings.
The conical hat the student in the below photo is wearing is the
traditional headwear of “ohenro-san” (pilgrims) who travel to famous temples, such as Yamadera, on foot, or (more recently) by bus.
In addition to taking in the sights around
the temple, the students attended a pottery workshop where they were able to
create their own dishes or mugs.
The autumn foliage was gorgeous, and the
surrounding mountains already had a light dusting of snow. It was very typical
autumn weather for this part of Japan.
Almost every town in Japan is famous for some kind of food, sweet, or style of cooking, so no excursion is complete without sampling the local cuisine!
-FGL Staff