Trip to Zenkoji and Obuse Town - Fall 2007

I went to the Zenkoji and Obuse Town in neighbouring prefecture, Nagano during Fall term 2007 with the UMEX members. If I am not mistaken it was on 4th November, a day before my mid term examination for Global Governance of Human Security subject. However, even though studying and preparing for the exam was important, i gave in to temptation and joined the visit to Nagano-ken. Of course, to appease my guilty feelings, i brought along the notes for the particular subject as I was planning to read it on the bus. The trip took 2 hours to go to Nagano-ken and another two hours to come back to Urasa. Nevertheless, it remained in my bag as I was too busy enjoying the conversation with everyone.

Zenkoji could be considered is one of the many famous temples in Japan. Rather than elaborating the history and significance of the place which everyone could find in other websites, i prefer to remember Zenkoji for its beauty. The building is very nice and its architecture was wonderful. However, after several months having visited Zenkoji, the things that i remembered the most are the trees and flowers. The garden was magnificent. The pictures above which consisted a lot of green were taken while i was in Zenkoji. As for the ghostlike figure, it is one of the window display in the Obuse Town where we stopped to get some shopping done. It is one of my favourite although at a first glance it kind of look scary. The other picture is of the ice cream shop in Obuse Town. Really had a nice time eating ice creams in Zenkoji as well as in Obuse Town. In fact i did not even eat lunch or the proper equivalent of lunch as i only ate 3 ice creams for the whole day. I did wonder how I survived that day though.

Anyway, if you want to know more about Zenkoji, just follow the link below.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6001.html

For those who are curious on what happened to my mid term, there was no need to worry. I got 29/30 for that particular mid term. I am quite amazed at myself. Maybe the trip to Zenkoji acted as a stress reliever that allowed me to perform to the fullest of my potential. I don't really know. However i do not plan to make it a habit of going to tours and such a day before important exams.