Valley Of The Temples

So I have been a little remiss in my posting. Give a guy a break I do need to sleep and it was raining the last two days........
On Saturday my flying buddy Corey and I went on a great adventure. We were in Oahu (Honolulu). We set out for the valley of the temples. To see a replica of a 900 year old Japanese temple. We had no idea what we were getting in to we knew we just had to take 2 buses and it was on the other side of the island. You see the most interesting things on buses. On the second bus, the driver told us we would get off when we saw Mc Donalds. So we were driving and driving. ( Beautiful scenery). Kept commenting on how easy it was to take a great picture and Corey said "duh, it Hawaii" she has a point!
We finally arrived at the Mc Donalds stop after an hour( yes I said an hour! I would have knitted but I was too busy looking out the windows)

We were told to walk thru the cemetery and the temple was behind.

We came upon the Byodo-In Temple. It is almost magical and was completely unexpected. It was built in 1968. To commemorate the first Japanese immigrants to Hawaii. It was built completely without nails. As we approached we heard a beautiful haunting bell. It just sounded like tranquility. Byodo-in Temple translates. "Temple of equality"

The bell we heard is 5 foot high 3 ton brass bell.

The Buddha housed in the temple is 18 feet high covered in gold lacquer.
As you can see I didn't have to many problems getting a good picture.

It was a beautiful day and quite the experience. We could have stayed longer watching the koi swim., I would have liked to spend time knitting. (It would be a good place to work on a prayer shawl) .
Alas we had a long bus ride back. I will hold my memories of that beautiful tranquil place inside me.

As a after note I had mentioned that evening on the bus to our pilot what a wonderful day Corey and I had. As well as what a beautiful place it was. He said " as a christian, I wouldn't be interested at all" I thought what a sad person you are..............
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