I made the mistake of entering the valley with a lighthearted attitude, believing in the information flyer that appeared to be a flat road running along the valley with an appropriate time required, hoping to feel the natural cooling effect of the valley during the hot summer. At the entrance to the valley, a suspension bridge with a sign that says max 5 people are allowed invites a sense of adventure, but all we pass are children in swimsuits with floats. Apparently, the waterfall basin (Senga-Fuchi) at the very entrance of the valley had been turned into an improvised pool. The bright green waterfall basin looks like it has been filled with bath salts, and if you miss your chance to take a photo, it will be crowded with people.
valley (2)from bridge
valley (3)play ground for children
valley (4)senga-fuchi
ojira valley flyer
Since it was a valley with so many small children around, I saw a flyer that said it would take 35 minutes to get to the next stop (Asahi-Fall), so I headed deeper into the valley, thinking it would be a nice walk. After that, I could no longer hear the sounds of children playing, and after 35 minutes of climbing up a steep mountain path that took a long detour to get over a waterfall with steps, and climbing up and down chains and iron ladders, I finally arrived at Asahi fall after 50 minutes. I’m already drenched in sweat, my throat is parched, and my legs are tired. However, there was no signboard for the waypoint mentioned in the flyer, and after walking up the mountain road for another 20 minutes, there was a signboard (Asahi-Fall) for the waypoint. The flyer said it would take 35 minutes, but it actually took 70 minutes. After that, I continued walking faster and faster until I reached the turnaround point (Jinja-Fall), but I still couldn’t get there in the time specified in the flyer. Normally, I think the time written on such flyers is written with sufficient margin, but don’t believe the time required on the flyer for Ojira River Valley.
valley (5)
valley (6)
valley (7)
valley (8)
valley (9)
valley (10)
valley (11)asahi fall behind cliff
valley (12)Building blocks that are about to collapse
valley (13)yuriga-fuchi
valley (14)
valley (15)
valley (16)return point
valley (17)jinjya fall
I was only complaining about the time required on the flyer, but the valley itself is full of large white granite rocks, their whiteness is dazzling, and the clear water is flowing everywhere, making it refreshing. My clothes are soaked with sweat, which is the exact opposite. The ridge path on the way back was relatively flat, and we stayed on time here. In the end, it took about 3 hours to turn around at the turnaround point.
In Yamanashi Prefecture, alluvial fans are formed everywhere where rivers flow from steep mountains, and fruit cultivation is popular there. Hokuto City and Nirasaki City are famous for producing peaches, and the peach blossoms, which bloom a little earlier than the cherry blossoms, are enchanting.
peach orchardorder card
If you can, visit in early summer and buy outlet peaches in bulk at a bargain price. At JA(Japan Agricultural Cooperatives) Rihoku, there are several yards (common selection yards) where peaches brought in from producers are sorted and shipped, but peaches that are not of standard quality and are not shipped to the market (this is called “Hangedashi”,meaning out of standard) are sold directly to consumers here. The taste is the same, except that it cannot be shipped to the market due to serious reasons such as a slight scratch on the appearance or a slight problem with the color of the surface. They could be normally displayed in European markets. One box of about 20 pieces costs 2,200 yen. People from neighboring prefectures have been lining up for this event since early morning. In my case, I was late in the morning, so I arrived at 9am and my ticket number was 64.
selection yard1
selection yard2
The system is such that producers bring the peaches they harvested on the day to the common selection yard, sort them, and when the “Hangedashi” boxes are made, people who have tickets are called in turn. I was nervous, but finally, at 11:30, I was called and was able to get a top quality item. Please note that even if you have a numbered ticket, if you are not careful, there are some people, especially elderly people, who will cross your path, so even though there is shade, you will have to wait in line when it is near your turn.
stand in line
Everyone was looking for the big box, and I witnessed people with ticket numbers far behind the turn snatching up unpopular small boxes. There were also several large fans installed for people waiting outside in the hot weather, but you should be careful as there are times when large ladies occupy the space in front of the rotating fans.
out of selection for juice
When I spoke to the sorting guy who was waiting for the peaches to be brought in, he said that if the sugar content is high, some parts of the peaches will become bitter due to the hot afternoon sun, so they are removed from even though the “Hanedashi” peaches and they are washed in a special washing machine, and apparently processed into juice after the bitter part is removed.
It is said that peaches will not last long in the hot summer unless they are not only sweet but also sour. By the way, if you buy peaches in bulk and still hard, they will last longer if you store them in the back of the refrigerator compartment where the temperature does not change much. If you take it out 2-3 days before eating, it will become softer and more sweet.
While I was waiting there, I visited the shrine adjacent to the yard, which has a long history with military commander, Takeda Shingen. It looked like the red helmets of the Takeda army.
shrine gate near selection yard
shrine near selection yard
Detour
konseiken1
Kinseiken, a long-established Shingen mochi(rice cake) shop, only sells Water Shingen mochi on weekends from June to September. This summer water confectionery is made by trapping the delicious water of the valley in agar that has been reduced to an absolute minimum, making it fluffy, and eating it with soybean flour and black sugar syrup, but it dissolves quickly, so it can only be eaten locally. It’s like drinking delicious water. The stores are located in Nirasaki and Daigahara-shukuba. The Daigahara store is located in front of Sake Brewery Shichiken.
Near Jisso-ji Temple, there is a row of Sanehara cherry trees planted by the pioneers of this area. It is said that when they first settled in this area, they had great difficulty cultivating it due to lack of water.
sanehara3 kai komagatake
sanehara4
sanehara5
sanehara6
sanehara7
sanehara12 edohigan cherry
sanehara13
sanehara14
sanehara15
sanehara16
The rows of cherry blossom trees, which have watched their work over the past year, will be in full bloom again this year with Mt. Kai-komagatake in the Southern Alps in the background and will give them courage.
It seems that since the Edo period, common people have enjoyed ranking hot spring resorts with sumo-like rankings, but in modern rankings, Beppu Onsen is always ranked as the western “Yokozuna.” Beppu is like a collection of many hot spring resorts, but regardless of their ranking, there are small hot spring resorts all over Japan that have their own unique characteristics, for example Geto hot spring, Ginzan hot spring, Matsukawa hot spring and Tsuta hot spring.
geto retro hotel
ginzan hot spring
Matsukawa Hot Spring
tsuta hot spring
kannaw hotspring steam everywhere
Hot springs can be found everywhere in Beppu. When you climb up the hill and look out over the city, you can see hot spring steam rising from everywhere, and you can feel that the town of Beppu is built on magma underground. The best view point is the bus stop of Kan-nawa Hotspring East Exit or Steam observation deck with small parking space. (>>refer to the map below)
There are public hot springs all over the place with no frills, just a tiled bathtub in the middle. There is no caretaker at the entrance, and locals enter without permission. In addition, the steam bath with medicinal herbs inside the sauna has a relaxing natural scent. Takegawara Onsen, a splendid Karahafu hot spring near the coast, will test your mettle with its heat.
kannawa hotspring sujiyu1
kannawa hotspring sujiyu2 no charge for local people
kannawa hotspring sujiyu3 cat with cafe over there
kannawa hotspring public bath with steam
kannawa hotspring medicinal herbs sekisho
kannawa hotspring sauna with japanese herb sekisho
beppu takegawara hotspring
kannawa hotspring steam from the slit of road
The ultimate way to enjoy hot springs is to cook steamed dishes. You procure your own ingredients, arrange them in a colander, and cook them just over hot spring steam for the optimal time for each ingredient. Steaming with hot spring steam has a slightly different taste than steaming on a regular stove, probably because of the hot spring ingredients. The Yanagiya Inn we stayed at has an Italian restaurant that serves steamed dishes, as well as a kitchen where you can cook your own steamed dishes.
kannawa hotspring yanagiya1 entrance
kannawa hotspring yanagiya3 kitchen
kannawa hotspring yanagiya4 steam cooking
kannawa hotspring yanagiya5 before steam
kannawa hotspring yanagiya6 recommended steam time for each ingredient
otto e sette oita
otto1 amberjack salad
otto2 spagetti boiled by hotspring water
otto3 swallow genovese
otto4 hand made bread
otto5 ice
otto6 hell boiled dish
otto7 dish with vegitable
otto8 yellow powdered persimmon
otto9 pudding boiled hotspring
otto10
The best way to enjoy Beppu is to experience something a little different from the typical tourist route of visiting Jigoku Onsen (Hell Hotspring). Of course, I won’t forget to visit Jigoku Onsen.
Buddha statues are made of five types of materials: metal, lacquer, wood, stone, and earth, and the materials have changed over time. Naturally, costs, time, and techniques vary depending on the material, but it’s surprising that the old ones are superior in all respects. In the Asuka period, represented by Horyu-ji Temple, Buddha statues were made of gilt bronze, although they were small, but later on, lacquer was used to make them lighter so that they could be carried out in case of frequent temple fires caused by lightning. The Asura statue at Kofukuji Temple is a representative work.
shoujyouji kakushi (Source: website of village Yugawa)
Furthermore, as Buddhism spread, the demand for Buddhist statues increased, and people began to make Buddhist statues using wood, which was easy to procure and could be produced in a short time. During the Heian period, there were many Buddhist statues made of one piece of wood. There are more wooden Buddhist statues in Nara than in Kyoto, but the surviving single-wood Buddha statues are valuable because the Heike family burned down temples that sided with the Genji clan at the end of the Heian period. Therefore, the precious single-wooden Buddha statues surprisingly remain in the region. One of the representative examples is the Yakushi Nyorai statue, a national treasure, at Shoujyouji Temple in the Aizu region of Fukushima Prefecture, where Buddhist culture was flourishing.
When it became difficult to procure a single large piece of wood to carve a Buddha statue from, they introduced the method of marquetry and division of labor to enable mass production in a short time. This led to the development of the Kei-ha school, whose representative was the Buddhist sculptor Unkei. From the Kamakura period onward, muscular statues were made using marquetry.
On the other hand, regarding stone making, large amounts of marble suitable for carving were produced around the Mediterranean Sea, so stone sculptures were produced in large quantities during the Greco-Roman period, but in Japan there was a lack of natural stone suitable for carving. As a result, 60-70% of the Buddha statues carved directly into cliffs are located in Oita Prefecture.
usuki2 amida
usuki3
usuki4 holes for scriptures
usuki5
usuki7 sannosan
usuki8
usuki9 kosono
usuki11
usuki13 torii at fukada
Usuki is home to many stone cliff Buddha statues that have been designated as national treasures, and are said to date from the late Heian period to the Kamakura period. Not only is the carving beautiful, but the colors remain as well. There are all kinds of Buddhist statues, including Amida Nyorai, Yakushi Nyorai, Dainichi Nyorai, and Jizo Bosatsu.
usuki12 black garlic famous for TV shopping
By the way, many of the souvenir shops here sell black garlic as a way to promote health, but I wonder why. I heard that you can make black garlic yourself by heating and fermenting raw garlic in an electronic jar for 20 days, as I saw on a Japanese satellite TV advertising program. It’s quite expensive to buy. All the souvenir shops reminded me that Japan’s satellite broadcasts are mostly commercials for health-promoting foods, jewelry, or bedding.
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.
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.
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.
Before the shuttle bus group arrives, take a lecture at the Brown Bear Information Center about how to climb the mountain. The important thing is to know what to do to avoid encountering a bear, and I have hardly ever thought about what to do in case I do come across one. Even if you wear a bear bell, it will be drowned out by the sound of the river around the stream. If you are a certain distance away from a bear you encounter, you will back away while looking into the bear’s eyes, and if you are attacked at close range, you will protect your neck with your hands under your backpack, but what would you do if your hands were bitten by bear? All you can do is decide not to think about encountering such a thing. The exit from the center is also on your way home, so make a donation or buy some goods from the center to show your appreciation for the safety efforts.
brown bear info center
brown bear info center explanation of precautions
Now it’s time to tour the swamp. One circuit clockwise takes 5 hours, but the second half is downhill so you will need some climbing equipment. If you turn back at Kogen-numa(swamp) just before the deepest Sora-numa, you won’t need any mountaineering equipment and can return in 4 hours round trip. If you look at the map, you can see that this is a place where the mountain collapsed and created swamps, but it is a fairly long mountain trail and should not be considered a hike. It is better to at least wear mudguard spats on your foot.
Source Excerpt from the Ministry of the Environment website
(Source: Excerpt from the Ministry of the Environment website)
Final descending time for each of the three major swamps is announced, and instructors are always on standby there regardless of the weather. I felt that it was hard work for the instructors to call out to every climber, but since they were standing all the time without even ringing a bear bell, so I thought that calling out to them was also a measure against bears. (I’m sorry.) Early morning and evening are prime times for bears to be seen.
red demon will catch you
At this time of final descent, few people will associate it with the red demon of the Mt. Rokko traversal competition (Kobe City). I once participated in a competition where I ran 48 km of Mt. Rokko from Suma to Takarazuka in one day. A red demon will chase you from the last place, and at each checkpoint it will display how many minutes it will take to arrive, and if you are overtaken by this, you will be told that the race is over and you will not be able to complete the race. Furthermore, when you finish the race, you will receive a small shield to prove your completion. The next day, my body was in shambles.
Now, go back to the tour. For the first hour, you walk through wetlands dotted with skunk cabbage that looks like it’s been devoured by bears,
to dohyo-numa (1) skunk cabbage eaten by bear
to dohyo-numa (1)
to dohyo-numa (2)
to dohyo-numa (5) surveillance camera for bear
to dohyo-numa (6) bear feces
to dohyo-numa (8) yanbe tappu stream
to dohyo-numa (9) yanbe tappu stream
to dohyo-numa (11) caution for bear
to dohyo-numa (12)
If you’re lucky, you might be able to spot the brightly colored wild bird, the Ginzanmashiko,
to dohyo-numa Ginzanmashiko (2)
to dohyo-numa Ginzanmashiko (3)
to dohyo-numa Ginzanmashiko (4)
to dohyo-numa Ginzanmashiko (5)
to dohyo-numa Ginzanmashiko (6)
to dohyo-numa Ginzanmashiko (7)
to dohyo-numa Ginzanmashiko (8)
dohyo-numa
basho-numa
And then you arrive at Takimi-numa. There are many temples in Kyoto with wonderful gardens, but Takimi-numa surpasses them in its ultimate natural beauty. The exquisite balance between the close-up view of the swamp and the distant view of the colorful autumn leaves arranged like a folding screen on the slope is out of this world. You can enjoy it on both sunny and even rainy days.
takimi-numa 2
takimi-numa (1)
takimi-numa (3)foggy
takimi-numa (4)foggy
takimi-numa (2) foggy
Midori-numa, which appears next to Takimi-numa, has an open landscape and is one of swamps with final decending time set. Each swamp has a completely different look.
midori-numa
midori-numa (2)
midori-numa (8)
midori-numa (10)Please bring your own toilet waste container
midori to yuno (1)bear feces
midori to yuno (2)wooden path materials
midori to yuno (3)
midori to yuno (4)small river crossing
midori to yuno (5)
midori to yuno (6)
yuno-numa
kamo-numa
After a while along the mountain trail, you will come to Ezo-numa. It appears to be a swamp formed like a terraced rice field at the edge of a slope, but the end of the break in the trees in the middle seems to be a waterfall over there, and the reflection of the autumn leaves on the water’s surface is nothing short of beautiful.
ezo-numa (1)
ezo-numa (2)left
ezo-numa (3)left-center
ezo-numa (4)center-right
ezo-numa (5)right
When you walk further, you will see the cliffs of Takanegahara and Shikibu-numa where the reflection of the autumn leaves on the water’s surface is also beautiful.
ezo to shikibu (2)
shikibu-numa (1)left
shikibu-numa (2)center
shikibu-numa (3)right
As you climb further, Daigaku-numa appears at the foot of the cliff.
daigaku-numa (0)
daigaku-numa (1)
daigaku-numa (2)
The turning point, Kogen-numa, will be just around the corner. If the weather is good, you can see Mt. Midoridake over there look like the mountain is wrapped in red sashes of autumn leaves. Time is up here. Before I knew it, the light rain had gotten heavier, so I turned back.
kogen-numa
return point (2)
return point (1)
return point (3) looking over at daigaku-numa
return point (4)
go back to midori-numa
daisetsu kogen onsen ramen after swamp tour
It took about 5 hours round trip as I went slowly. After eating up some warm ramen at an inn in Daisetsu Kogen Onsen, I headed straight to New Chitose Airport. There was no time to stop by to see the Sounkyo waterfall. The road along the way is covered in terrain full of columnar joints.
First, write your name in the climbing record book at the management office at the entrance to the mountain trail. It takes about 15 minutes to reach the ridgeline, so you just keep going up the mountain trail with no views until then.
ginsendai 1 entrance
ginsendai 2
Once you reach the ridgeline, there are a series of spectacular views. A brocade of autumn leaves spreads across the huge flat slope.
ginsendai 4
ginsendai 5 forcus
Don’t be satisfied here, let’s at least go to Daiichi Hanazono (First Flower Garden). It’s less than an hour from the parking lot. The view of the sea of trees below is amazing from here, and you’ll want to dive with your whole body.
ginsendai 6 left
ginsendai 7 center
ginsendai 8 right
ginsendai 10
ginsendai 11
ginsendai 12
ginsendai 13 left
ginsendai 14 right
A little further ahead is a rocky area where pikas live. It is a small animal of the lagomorph family that survived the Ice Age and physically resembles a mouse. Listen carefully and look in the direction of the sound. They move quickly, and the bottom of the rocky area is a passage for pikas, so you can see their faces from various angles. This is also cute. There is a regular photographer with a telephoto lens, so it’s a good idea to ask him/her about various things.
Each arched stone bridge in Kumamoto prefecture exists in exquisite balance with the weight of the thousands of stones that make up it, and the shape is beautiful. It is said that there are approximately 320 existing stone bridges in Kumamoto, but why are there so many stone bridges in Kumamoto? Many factors seem to have contributed to this, including the presence of easy-to-work welded tuff formed by the Aso pyroclastic flow nearby, the presence of a technical group of masons, and the fact that people who learned Western techniques in Nagasaki moved there. There is also a story that the designer of stone bridge was even threatened with his life by other clans due to his high technical skills. This stone bridge is the result of a divine work. The steps involved creating an arch-shaped wooden frame according to the blueprint, fitting stones into it from above, and finally removing the wooden frame.
refer to kintai bridge
Around the same time, a huge wooden arch bridge was built in Iwakuni. This is Kintaikyo Bridge.
stone bridge tsujyunkyo1
stone bridge tsujyunkyo3 a little water
stone bridge tsujyunkyo behind “Anna and the Beast”
Anyway, the Midori River basin in southern Kumamoto Prefecture is full of stone bridges. Some are stone bridges for people to cross valleys, but many are also used to carry waterways to irrigate higher ground. A typical example is the Tsujun Bridge, but for some reason there is an object depicting “Beauty(Anna) and the Beast” in front of it. Let’s visit your favorite stone bridge. Depending on the time of day at Futamata bridge, light from the arch opening and light reflected on the river surface overlaps to form a heart shape.
stone bridge futamata
Furthermore, in order to distribute the precious water carried by stone bridges to the fields, it is necessary to distribute the water equally in proportion to the cultivated area. A mechanism for this purpose is a circular water diversion system, in which water rises from the center of the circle using a U-shaped pipe, spills into partitions set up along the circumference in proportion to the cultivated area, and is distributed in various directions. You can see places where this device is still in use today. You might read the same story at the travel note “Akita in winter”. Forthermore, there is one in the metropolitan area as well as in Mizonokuchi in Kawasaki City.
circular divertsion1 distributing water according to the rice field
circular diversion2 divided water flows above the river
A detour
Mizutama (Polka dots) cafe, a cafe tucked away on top of a mountain. A good place to relax and do nothing. Aso can also be seen in the distance.
polka dots cafe2
polka dots cafe3
polka dots cafe4
polka dots cafe in yamato
polka dots cafe5 lunch
polka dots cafe6 lunch
polka dots cafe7 cheese cake
polka dots cafe8 aso
polka dots cafe10
It’s difficult to get here. Don’t overlook the small landmarks at junctions on narrow roads. It seems that reservations are now required recently.
Another detour
Yuen railway octagon tunnel
At first glance it looks like an octagonal tunnel, but numerous so-called nut-like shapes are lined up along the cliff. Although it is the remains of a former railroad (Yuen railway), it seems to be a preventative measure against landslides. There seems to be a demonic realm ahead, but at the end of the tunnel is a tranquil landscape.
