2024 | Japanese Countryside Travel Notes

2024-02-052024-02-09

Giant Suspension Bridge and unrelated snake spectacle

I used to think that suspension bridges were built out of necessity, but seeing this made me realize that they were purposely built in places where they didn’t need to be built, just to make people feel scary. Many people walk on the suspension bridge, which looks just like a wide pedestrian bridge. Although the suspension bridge uses fairly thick wire rope, you can still feel some sway. There is a magnificent waterfall that can only be seen from here, but the scale of the view from the suspension bridge is so large that the waterfall feels small.

johgakura bridge

look down from bridge 1

nakatsugawa valley bridge

There are also places in the Tohoku region where the views from bridges are dynamic. Johgakura Bridge in Aomori Prefecture is a good place to stop by on your way to the Shirakami Mountain Range and Lake Towada as above photos. It’s also a good idea to stop by the bridge that spans the Nakatsugawa Valley in Fukushima Prefecture near Goshikinuma on Mt. Bandai.

suspension bridge5

suspension bridge2

suspension bridge1

Once you cross the suspension bridge, you will see a building that looks like a haunted house at the festival venue. In front of the house, there was a crowd of people who seemed to be hesitating whether to enter or not. This place holds a spectacle where customers can touch and hold white snakes in hopes of attracting financial luck. I was reluctant to enter, but my companion was blinded by financial fortune and we decided to enter.

suspension bridge6 white snake named toguro

suspension bridge7 white snake named makitsuki

When I pay, the thick curtain in front of me opens and I come face to face with two white snakes. One of them is called “Toguro,” which coils itself on my hand, and the other is “Makitsuki,” which wraps around my arm.” No matter who holds them, these snakes maintain the same posture as their namesake, so these must be their favorite poses. The touch was unlike anything I had ever felt before, neither cold nor warm, and I was filled with the desire to return them as soon as possible. In the end, it was the people at the show booths who were lucky to make money.

Detour

Tonight we will be staying at Kiyasuya in Sujiyu Onsen, but Sujiyu Onsen is also home to a famous public bathhouse “Utase-yu.” The name Sujiyu originally came from the fact that the hot spring ingredients are effective for soothing tired muscles, but the public bath is an ultimate hot spring where the hot spring water is dropped from a height of about 3 meters to soothe the body.

sujiyu hotspring4

sujiyu hotspring1

sujiyu hotspring2 utaseyu

sujiyu hotspring3

kuju tade wetlands

kuju tade hell valley

2024-02-042024-02-04

Figures inside Nabegataki waterfall

It became famous after it was used in the filming of several tea commercials on TV. It was created by erosion after the eruption of Mt. Aso 90,000 years ago. It’s fascinating to go behind the waterfall. However, people accumulate there, so if you take a photo of the waterfall from outside, people will appear behind the waterfall curtain like ghosts. It seems like admission is now restricted by advance reservations online.

You won’t be able to see the waterfall until you have descended quite a bit from the entrance, so you can see the sunlight shining into the basin of the waterfall, which is beautiful.

nabegataki waterfall with sun rays

It’s difficult to talk about the beauty of waterfalls. First of all, there is no taxonomy of waterfalls, so each person imagines a waterfall in a variety of ways. There are waterfalls that fall in a dynamic straight line, waterfalls with many tiered basins, waterfalls that cascade down the rock surface, and waterfalls that flow delicately and quietly as if pulling a thread, each with its own unique charm. Under such circumstances, I wonder whose permission they get to decide on the top 100 waterfalls. There are wonderful waterfalls all over Japan, so I hope you find your favorite one by yourself. Here I will introduce my favorites, Snoopy Falls and Nametsu Falls.

miroku waterfall like snoopy

nametsu big waterfall2

Detour

There is a restaurant near the waterfall that serves my favorite lunch. Last time I stopped by, I bought a bunch of herbal tea.

apple house4 farmland

apple house5 lunch

apple house8 dessert

2024-01-302024-02-04

Revenge Aso under the blue sky

aso crater3

aso crater4

aso crater5 sunasenri

I was finally able to visit the core of Aso. Last time, I couldn’t see the whole thing in the rain clouds, but there was a swell of sticky lava, exposed bedrock towering as far as the eye could see, and it looked like there were cordons like construction sites all over the place.

aso crater1 with sticky lava

aso crater2 focus

aso crater6

aso crater7

When you look at it, you can feel that it is a volcano that is still active. The most recent eruption occurred in October 2016. Crater regulation information is updated daily, so if you don’t check it before you visit, you’ll be missing out even if the weather is nice.

Shiroyama view point on the edge of somma

aso caldera1 left

aso caldera2 center from shiroyama view point

aso caldera3 right

Aso approach

aso highway4 thin and aso left

aso highway5 thin and aso right

aso highway1

aso highway2 kuju

aso highway3 aso view

aso pasture1

aso komezuka

aso pasture3 bright thin

aso kuju mountains on somma

aso moutain

Aso crater and Kusasenri (The grass stretches for a thousand miles)

aso crater and kusasenri

Aso cattle are grazed on the mountain path along the way. If you approach them carelessly, their eyes will turn bright red and threaten you. I have seen bullfights, and when the fighting instinct comes to the fore, the bull’s eyes become bloodshot. I’m looking forward to tonight’s beef steak.

aso pasture2 red eyes expressing itimidation

2024-01-28

Yabakei is cool or “Yabai” in Japanese

yabakei old arhat

Yabakei is an old volcanic plateau that has been transformed into a series of strangely shaped rocks due to erosion. There are places called this way all over the country (For example: Dakikaeri Gorge in Akita Prefecture), but they are concentrated in the northern part of Oita Prefecture. When Yukichi Fukuzawa, an enlightenment thinker and educator from the end of the Edo period to the Meiji period and a founder of Keio University, learned that one of these, his hometown of Kyoshuhou, was going to be sold, he apparently bought the land and protected it without using his name. It was the forerunner of the National Trust movement in Japan.

yabakei kyoshuho1 left

yabakei kyoshuho2 center

yabakei kyoshuho3 right

In addition, the priest of Rakan-ji Temple (Arhat Temple), whose temple complex clings to a gigantic rock wall, spent 30 years digging a hand-dug tunnel called the Ao-no-domon to enable people to safely pass through the difficult access points of this Yabakei to worship. This cave is located at the foot of Kyoshuhou.

yabakei blue tunnel2

yabakei blue tunnel3 hand digging

yabakei blue tunnel1

The writer Kan Kikuchi was inspired by this real story and created a masterpiece called “Beyond the Enemy.” The main character learns that the person he has found to avenge himself is actually a priest who is excavating the tunnel, but in order to achieve revenge as soon as possible, he helps dig the tunnel together, and when it opens, he abandons his desire for revenge. This is the synopsis of his novel. That’s why the title of the work is “Beyond the Enemy.”

By the way, the true story is that after the tunnel opened, Ao-no-Domon became the first toll road in Japan to collect tolls, but the money was used to pay for the construction costs of hiring masons, so it can’t be helped. The chisel and mallet used for hand digging are displayed in the hall next to the entrance to the chair lift that takes you up to Arhat Temple, so don’t miss them.

arhat temple1 entrance

arhat temple2

arhat temple3 real chisel and hammer for digging tunnel

arhat temple4 top of mountain

arhat temple5 using chair lift

arhat temple6

arhat temple8 thousand jizos

arhat temple9

arhat temple11 clouds

arhat temple13

arhat temple15

arhat temple16

arhat temple19 five hundreds arhats

arhat temple18 rice scoops save lives

I think Arhat Temple was also built so that it clings to a rock wall like that. If that’s the case, I wonder if it would have been better to build the temple in a safer place, without the need for tunnels, from the beginning. If that happens, all the good stories I’ve introduced here will be lost. In any case, there is something about Yabakei that moves people’s hearts.

Yabakei is cool or “Yabai !” in Japanese.

yabakei bridge

yabakei a part of kyoshuho

yabakei eight views at a glance2

yabakei eight views at a glance1

yabakei eight views at a glance3

2024-01-27

the grandmaster of all Hachiman Shrines, 2 bows and 4 claps are too much

Usa Shrine is the grandmaster of all Hachiman Shrines. Do you understand that there is a hierarchy in shrines, just like in human society?

It is said that there are eight million gods in Japan, and people believe that there are gods everywhere. Depending on the deity enshrined, shrines can be classified into 30,000 Inari shrines for business, 40,000 Hachiman shrines for military fortune, 12,000 Tenjin shrines for academics, and 25,000 Suwa shrines for agricultural irrigation.

fushimi inari shrine

kitano tenman gu, Tenjinsama

suwa shrine

Left: Inari shrine / Center: Tenjin shrine / Right: Suwa shrine

Hachiman was originally an indigenous god worshiped by the local Usa clan, but it seems that he became the god of military luck after being told by the gods that he was the incarnation of Emperor Ojin, a master of archery. At Hachiman Shrine, there is a ritual called Hojo-e where living things are released into nature. Samurai (warrior) are destined to kill life, but Buddhism forbids killing. It is said that these contradictory concepts were fused on the Kunisaki Peninsula, resulting in a syncretization of Shinto and Buddhism.

Usa Jingu is the grandmaster of the Hachiman deity, and is positioned to bring together other shrines such as Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine in Kyoto and Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine in Kamakura. I think it would be interesting to visit the shrines while understanding their connections. The shape of the main building of the shrine is called Hachiman-zukuri(style) and is similar to each other.

usa gingu nanchu romon

iwashimizu hachiman gu

kamakura hachiman gu

Left: Usa /Center: Iwashimizu(Kyoto) /Right: Tsurugaoka(Kamakura)

usa shrine6 2bows 4applause worship — worship method: 2bows, 4applause and 1bow again

However, when it comes to etiquette when visiting shrines, at most shrines you bow twice, clap twice and lastly bow once again, but at Usa Shrine you bow twice, clap four times and lastly bow once again. Even so, the grounds of Usa Shrine are too vast like U.S.A.

usa shrine1 kure bridge

usa shrine2 couple Mt. Fuji

usa shrine3 gate

usa shrine4 uemiya

usa shrine8 inside

2024-01-24

The Kunisaki Peninsula is a training ground for Shugensha(Mountain Faith)

The Kunisaki Peninsula is a group of former volcanoes that jut out into the Seto Inland Sea in a generally conical shape. Because it is an old volcano, it has been eroded along a conical shape, with deep valleys radiating out to the sea. A Buddhist culture was formed by incorporating Japan’s ancient Shinto religion (the Hachiman faith at Usa Shrine) into Buddhism (Tendai sect), which was introduced from the continent, and training was carried out by walking on the harsh peaks of a group of former volcanoes that stood out in deep valleys.

uji byodo-in, the same national treasure

Fukiji Temple is an Amida Hall (national treasure), along with Uji’s Byodo-in Phoenix Hall and Hiraizumi Chuson-ji Konjiki Hall, and is the oldest wooden building in Kyushu, with its sloping roof evoking elegance. According to a local guide, it was a playground when he was little, so it was a luxury. Not only are the precious Buddhist paintings inside the temple fading due to exposure to ultraviolet rays, but the security is not at all worthy of being considered a national treasure, but is rather non-vigilant, making it hard to believe that it is one of the three major Amida temples. A statue of Amida Nyorai is carved out of a Japanese oak tree.

kunisaki fuki temple1

kunisaki fuki temple3

kunisaki fuki temple2 black cat

kunisaki fuki temple4 amidadou

kunisaki fuki temple6 kaya with antiseptic effect

There is also a temple called Magi-Ohdo nearby, where many simple Buddhist statues remain. There are so many temples and large Buddha statues carved into cliffs that you will have to stay for several days to see them all over the place.

kunisaki sannomiyanokei

kunisaki magioudou

kunisaki tashibunosho motomiya carved buddha1

kunisaki tashibunosho motomiya carved buddha2 fudo myoo(center)

kunisaki scarecrows to increase population of depopulated village

Detour (Four seasons’ vegitable restaurant)

There is a home-cooked restaurant called Shikisai (Four seasons’ vegitable restaurant directly translated in English) in a place overlooking a rice field called Tashibu-no-sho, which was the manor of Usa Jingu Shrine during the Heian period. During the rice planting season, you can see the beautiful green terraced rice fields. This was my first visit, but they serve elaborate dishes made with unexpected ingredients. I want to stop by also next time.