It is said to be the longest suspension bridge in Japan, Ryujin Ohtsuribashi, but I don’t see any reason to build a bridge here. It’s clear that the purpose is to attract tourists. I wonder if there’s anything interesting I can see on the other side of the bridge. Also, the bridge is made of a fairly sturdy steel frame, so there’s no shaking at all and it’s not thrilling at all.
dragon god suspension bridge (1)
dragon god suspension bridge (2)
dragon god suspension bridge (3)
dragon god suspension bridge (5)
The only thrilling thing about the bridge is that you can bungee jump from the middle, but no one was there.
bungee jump entrance in dragon god suspension bridge
The Kyushu suspension bridge, Japan’s second largest, feels more swaying, and on the other side you can touch two white snakes that symbolizes good fortune.
suspension bridge0
suspension bridge6 white snake named toguro
suspension bridge7 white snake named makitsuki
Detour
soba restaurant fujihiro
The road leading to the Ryujin Suspension Bridge is called the Soba Highway. You can enjoy freshly made soba noodles at one of the soba restaurants, Fujihiro. It reminds me of a soba restaurant in Yamagata.
To get to the falls, you either have to give up and park in a free parking lot quite a ways off and walk in the scorching sun of heart Japan, or you have to misjudge the free parking lot and drive deep into the souvenir street, where you’re stuck and can’t get anywhere, only to be guided by a shop assistant holding a fan (with a sign saying parking is 500 yen).
Furthermore, you have to pay an entrance fee to enter a long tunnel before you reach the front of the waterfall. The tunnel is decorated with illuminations, but the illuminations look a bit cheap considering the great outdoors ahead.
fukuroda fall (2) inside tunnel
Suddenly, the front of an overwhelming waterfall like nothing I’ve ever seen before comes into view. Water flows down the huge rock face in multiple streams (like Snoopy Waterfall, but huge!) , and the sound is so loud it’s difficult to even hold a conversation. The waterfall is made up of several tiers from the top, but the key point is that you can’t see it from the front for free.
fukuroda fall (3)
fukuroda fall (4)
fukuroda fall (5)
fukuroda fall (6)
If you take the elevator up from here, you can see the upper tier of the waterfall all the way to the back (like Yokoya Ravine, but huge!), and the amount of water flowing down makes the rock face appear to be in the shape of a heart, which has led to it being introduced as a power spot.
fukuroda fall (7)
However, it was extremely difficult to find the shape, and I ended up taking many photos, checking each time to see if it looked like a heart, which took quite a while. I think the claim that it looks like a heart is a bit of an exaggeration or a pushy advertisement.
fukuroda fall (8)
fukuroda fall (10)
fukuroda fall (9)
fukuroda fall (11)
Apparently it gets incredibly crowded during the autumn foliage season, but you can still enjoy the coolness even in the height of summer.
Detour
Fukuroda Falls is located in Daigo Town in the Okukuji region. It could almost be said to be in the Tohoku region. The Suigun Line connects Mito in Ibaraki Prefecture with Koriyama in Fukushima Prefecture, but it is an extremely local line. At Hitachi Daigo Station, a station along the line, an old steam locomotive is on display, and at a nearby shrine, the stone steps are decorated with Hina dolls during the Hinamatsuri festival. There is a wide variety of agricultural products for sale at the roadside station.
Both sides of the stone steps leading up to the Sanmon gate are decorated with hydrangeas, just like at Meigetsuin Temple in Kamakura. Once you reach the top, you’ll see a pond on the grounds of the main hall filled with floating cut hydrangeas, a very calculating or cunning display. Everyone will be uploading videos of this to social media. The ducks in the pond look very cramped.
amabiki kannon (1)
amabiki kannon (17)
amabiki kannon (2)
amabiki kannon (15)
amabiki kannon (3)
amabiki kannon (4)
amabiki kannon (5)
amabiki kannon (13)
amabiki kannon (19)
amabiki kannon (20)
amabiki kannon (7)
Even when the hydrangeas are not in full bloom, many peacocks are free to roam. In Buddhism, they are said to have the power to ward off evil spirits and purify. I’m sure the pattern on its spread wings looks like eyes, which may intimidate monsters. According to a local photography enthusiast I bumped into, when surrounded by people, they spread their wings, either to get excited or to intimidate.
He showed me the footage stored on his smartphone, which was full of footage of peacocks spreading their feathers. Apparently, each peacock has its own unique style; some will raise their long wings vertically with great force, while others will spread them parallel to the ground and then slowly raise them. Naturally, the former is more impressive, but it’s hard to find one.
Finally, if you go up to the temple grounds at the top of the mountain, you can see the flat Kanto Plain in its entirety, which also reminds me of the flat Shonai Plain I saw at Dewa Sanzan.
amabiki kannon (9) with Mt.Tsukuba
amabiki kannon (14)
Today’s Inn
It’s a very rural hot spring inn. For a moment I thought I had arrived at a mountain hut. The rice, miso soup and grilled sweetfish were especially delicious.
It seems that the city of Sakuragawa, literally translated as cherry blossoms along river, was formed through a merger of towns and villages, and while there are certainly spots comparable to the wild cherry blossoms of Yoshino in Nara, one of merged town of Makabe, which retains the same town layout as it did in the early Edo period like as Tatsuno town, is more famous. I headed for the old townscape, and was surprised to see huge stone lanterns installed at the entrances of private homes here and there.
makabe town (3)big house and big lantern
They were so huge that you would never see them at an inn or temple or shrine, and it seemed like each home was competing to have their own. It seems like peoplein Tokushima Prefecture are showing off their wealth by building magnificent udatsu at the boundary between houses, but with the recent increase in robberies, the giant stone lantern is intended to appeal to robbers, as if it is asking them to break into its premises. As we drove, we saw stoneworks everywhere, and the rows of stone lanterns waiting to be shipped were a spectacular sight. As I couldn’t buy a stone lantern as a souvenir, I bought a stone chopstick rest instead.
makabe town (8)tsukamoto tea storehouse
As you enter the town of Makabe, you will come across an old townscape that has been designated an Important Building Heritage District. While some buildings are well preserved, others are in a state of disrepair, and some look as though they will soon collapse if left as they are. I wonder if it could be used as a way to revitalize the town and somehow improve it. There are no shops that you can just drop into while walking around town. I’m sure there are similar places all over the country, but seeing the buildings decaying in the hot sun made me feel more lonely than touristy.
makabe town (1)miwa house
makabe town (2)
makabe town (4)post office
makabe town (5)
makabe town (6)
makabe town (7)kawashima storehouse
makabe town (9)shiota house
makabe town (10)iseya inn
makabe town (11)murai brewery
makabe town (12)stone storehouse
makabe town (13)inose house yakuimon
makabe town (14)Mt.Tsukuba
makabe town (15)nishioka honten brewery
makabe town (16)
makabe town (17)
Detour for lunch
There is a lovely little cafe, “Cafe125,” between Makabe town and Amabiki Kannon Temple. The whole house is decorated with handmade dolls and dried flowers.
