Every year on February 28th the Kiwara Fudoson temple in Tomiai holds a firewalking festival.  The festival opens with a giant bonfire, in to which priests throw planks of wood with the names and prayers of the people who attend the festival.  When the fire burns down, the coals are raked in to a walking path, and the monks walk over it and pretend it doesn’t hurt in a display of mind over matter.  When the monks finish walking, the path of pain is opened to the general public.  By the time my place in the line reached this treacherous trail the coals had cooled down.

I spent the day with Papa and the family.  It was a good day.