残念座禅 and bunnies. Oh my!

In Japan the time for spring break in the university system, is a bit different from that in America. We have February through March off from classes, which seems to result in students fleeing from their self-imposed academic discipline (or occasionally lack thereof) to various areas spurred on by the sudden influx of free time to travel as far as their currently highly valued Japanese yen will take them. 

My personal amount of highly valued Japanese yen takes me about 30 minutes or so down the JR Sanyo line. While some may scoff at this limited radius for shenanigans ... (it's alright... I'll pause here a moment to allow said scoffing) ... this actually affords me excellent adventures indeed! While no phone booths were involved, my spring break travels have resulted in not just islands, not just mountains, but islands covered with bunnies, and mountains covered with carvings. 

Right off the bus in front of the hotel.
Cars don't seem to be allowed for the most part.

The first adventure was to an island covered in bunnies. Behold my ability to link relevant websites

It's name is 大久野島 (おおくのしま　Ookunoshima) or more commonly known by people who have heard me talk about it far too much: BUNNY ISLAND! 

My friend Hannah fending off devious rabbits.

The history of the island is quite sad in that it was used during WWII to produce poison gas, and at that time the island was a top military secret. The bunnies were kept there for testing, then at the end of the war the rabbits got loose and using their own top secret rabbit techniques managed to increase their numbers drastically. After the war local residents decided to make a museum to spread the word about the tragedy of war and show what had really happened there.  They then also decided that they had an island full of REALLY FREAKING ADORABLE RABBITS, and proceeded to set up a hotel, cultural activities, public baths and more. Here's a picture of a bunny for reference purposes.

This little guy likes to chase people around that are scared of rabbits. That's just how bunnies roll.

The second destination (which I also happen to have a relevant link for) was a mountain with a very old Buddhist temple at the top (瀧泉寺). Amazing hike to the top  ... um... lots of stuff! I should write better, but I won't for now. I'll leave this brief video instead.