[Date & Time] Sunday, March 4, at 11:00~16:40[Spots] Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, Hasedera Temple, Kotokuin Temple (Great Buddha), and Yuigahama Beach (optional)
[Visitors] 26 JICA participants from 10 countries, with 10 from Malaysia, 4 from Syria, 2 each from Kenya, Botswana, Egypt, and Nepal, 1 each from Algeria, Zambia, Colombia, and Nigeria, and 2 JICA Japanese staff members
[Attendants] 23 KSGG members
The cherry blossoms along Dankazura were still in bud. Two of my group members were from Nepal. They said Nepal has the same cherry blossoms as Japan. Although they had studied in Japan for more than two years, they were unfamiliar with Shinto. So I explained that Shinto is an old, indigenous religion of Japan and we always pay a visit to shrines in the New Year and on happy occasions. After lunch we went to Hasedera Temple, where plum blossoms started to come out finally and other flowers also had swollen buds. Spring is coming around the corner. Four people from Syria are Muslims, but they got interested in Buddhism, listening very attentively to our explanations about A Thousand Statues of Jizo and Eleven-Faced Kannon. They took a lot of pictures.
Then we went to Kotokuin Temple. After taking a group photo, we gathered and the atmosphere grew livelier with the usual quiz and the participants' speeches. Our guiding ended with the KSGG president's greeting.