Yesterday I traveled to the eastern side of the island to take in Senator Fong's Plantation and Gardens with the goal of hitting one of the garden tours. I arrived much too early and had about an hour and a half to kill. Luckily Oahu is composed almost entirely of sites to see so I consulted my tourist map and drove 5 minutes away to see the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park. It is basically a huge cemetery with a buffet of different houses of worship to choose from including the Byodo-In Temple. The temple is home to Amida, a golden Buddha over 18 feet tall.
There were, of course, plenty of koi in the ponds around the temple and you could buy food to feed them. It's just like feeding carp at the lake except these are prettier. Luis and I have been watching a lot of Japanese programming on one of the stations here (with subtitles, of course, hai!) and we learned that in Japan, some of these fish can cost over $1000. It seems a little much to pay for an animal that you can't pet, ride, or eat.
The bell pictured here is five feet high and weighs three tons. The bell is supposed to be rung before one enters the temple to spread the eternal teachings of Buddha. I didn't ring it but others did and it's a soft boom that travels quite a distance.
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