It's Lonely at the Top and, Eventually, You Have to Make Your Way Down

The temple grounds are pretty amazing. Still carved out of the many tiers of the mountainside, stairs and little stone paths lead you up and up and up, while on all sides you remain surrounded by tall trees. When you look out from this man-made refuge, you can see all the greenery enveloping the world on either side of you, and straight out in front of you is Yasuda-cho and the ocean beyond it. I don't have a picture of it because the sun was going to over-expose. 

The Main Entrance and a number of small buildings, very pretty
and dainty.

Another buddha sitting by a trickling waterfall.

There are fountains everywhere, because there's a spring that bubbles up from the depths of the mountain and finds its way out here. So the sculpted gardens are always alive with the tinkling giggles of running water. 

Up above this lovely little opening, there are a number of temples. I don't know what they are praising or waiting for, but I would point out that almost all temples and shrines in Japan (Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines) have bells. When the pilgrims come to pray at the shrine, they ring the bell so the gods wake up and hear them. I suppose the gods do not care the rest of the time, until the pilgrim proves his investment by killing himself to get up this mountain. If that's what it took to get the gods' attention, they better damn well be awake and listening all the time. What if I die of exhaustion and can't ring the bell? Those feckless deities. 

Entertainingly, the post on the left says Yasuda Town (Matsumoto something)
 and the post on the right says Tano Town (Marunaka Taxi Service). They
donated the posts to the temple. From here you can see a pilgrim
retreating after praying at the temple all the way up here. 

You can see the incense pot in front of the steps and if you look behind the hanging lamp
you can see the bell that you ring to wake the gods up. If the pilgrim before you looks like
he might be a little bit of a limp fish, ring the bell extra loud because the gods will probably
have gone back to sleep and put their earplugs in.

Last couple of shots. This was a big picture post. Ha! 

I honestly couldn't read any of the inscriptions or descriptions of anything, so I don't know what the place is dedicated to or what it's about. I could google it, but I booked myself all the way up there. You google it. 

Anyway, as you turn to head back down from the main temple, you pass this nice looking pilgrim who is also headed back down the mountain:

If you look right in front of our friend with the walking stick you can see a dude all in red. You are going to pass him next on your way down the mountain. 

And he's a scary bugger.

I'm constantly amazed at people making statues of scary gods. Or demons or Satan or anything like that. It's a blessing to not be able to see them, (conversely it's a mixed blessing to be able to see them, I suppose) and I don't know why anybody would want to give them real concrete places to hang out. It makes little sense to me. But inaka Japan (and cosmopolitan Japan, if it comes to that) is full of these statues. 

After taking a lovely tour of the temple grounds, I turned around and made my way down the mountain. It was slightly easier going back, because I fell and gravity helped me out (I jest), I reclaimed my bike and then walked it most of the way back down the street. I don't really trust my brakes these days. 

There you have it. Up soon will be pictures from my most recent trip to Takamatsu. Yee-haw. Stay tuned.