Being back home and visiting a few places I haven't been to since I was a really young kid is an amazing and humbling experience... Especially given the fact that I'm doing these things with my younger sister, and we're bringing our children along... God I'm old. Anyway, we visited a place on the Windward side of O'ahu called Valley of the Temples sitting at the base of the Ko'olau Mountains. It's basically a large plot of land, which is a vast cemetary, but as you drive through you come to majestic and awe inspiring site...
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Byodo-In Temple in the Valley of the Temples |
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Byodo-In Temple was built in the 1960's to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first Japanese immigrant workers in Hawaii who came to work in the sugar plantation fields. It is a replica of the 950-year-old Byodoin Temple located in Uji, Japan on the southern outskirts of Kyoto.
The most amazing pond surrounded one half of the temple with some of the largest and most impressive sized koi I have ever seen... These guys look like they were easily about 24-30" in length, leaving me clueless as to their age, since some exceptional Koi can live in upwards of 200 years...
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| Paolo feeding the koi... |
I don't really know that I need to elaborate... Places like this are inspirations for everyone on every level, from spiritually to aesthetically. I'm just so grateful I was able to come and experience it.
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