Hiroko Yoda

They are temples.

So this is the thing that there's, before I said that once again, there's a crystal, the clear separation between state and church in Japan.

But boundaries of those belief systems are very blurred.

Very blurred.

So you find Shinto shrine right next to Buddhist temples or Shigendo temples.

Or you can easily find Shinto shrine inside of Buddhist temple ground.

Or Shinto shrine venerates Buddhist deity.

Or the Buddhist temple venerates the Shinto.

Or Shigendo temples venerate both.

So it's a very unique... I never realized it until Western... You guys gave me something that I could compare.

In my country, Japan, 70% of Japan is mountains.

And the Shigendo, the worldview, basically the sea, the mountains, the spiritual realm, it's another world.

He did amazing training called thousand-day training.

It was 100% commitment.

Every day, he climbed.

First, he purified himself in a freezing cold waterfall.

And then he climbed a mountain, the holy mountain, the holy ground, very high.

And then come back.

And he did it for 1,000 days straight.

And it's a 100% commitment.