Mt. Shosha with Toshi

Back in March we went to Mt. Shosha with our friend Toshi, who is a tour guide. Mt. Shosha is a temple just outside of Himeji. It is the place where The Last Samuri was filmed.
We'd been to Mt. Shosha before, but this was nice because we had a personal guide. Plus, my friend Fumi is studying to be a tour guide in Himeji, so she came too to try to learn some tips from Toshi. In addition to our tour, Toshi arranged for us to meet with the monks and try Zen meditation. The meditation hall was a beautiful old building, and the monk walked us through the meditation process. I didn't reach Zen, but it was very peaceful. The hardest part was sitting cross-legged for that long.