Try KIRISHIMA

Try KIRISHIMA. Depending on the weather, you see something spectacular or nothing but fog and mist. Either way, the KIRISHIMA area where 20 some volcanoes sour are mind-cleansing. Ebino Kogen highland is a place for everybody with both easy and advanced courses available. This time no photos from the trekking. Easy trail but on a rainy day; hard to take pictures. But it almost stopped raining while visiting KIRISHIMA SHRINE. See a small shrine YAMA JINJA and magnificent cryptomeria trees on the shrine grounds which include hills behind the shrine buildings. 

 

 

 

 And nearby Maruo waterfall

This is onsen hot spring waterfall. Warm!

KIRISHIMA OPEN AIR ART MUSEUM

The outdoor part of the museum is particularly refreshing. Including Jonnasan Borofsky's, site specific artworks are dotted on the premises. Inside in the Art Hall are exhibited works done by world-famous artists and local artists. Amazing collection but taking a stroll out on the grounds and visiting the artworks on the way will be fun for everybody regardless of interest in art. 

KIRISHIMA natural settings are beautifully presented but more efforts should be done by the Kagoshima prefectural government whose affiliate started the project of building this. Unlike Benesse islands in the seto inland sea whose evolution has been driven by someone powerful like Mr. Fukutake, this art museum does not grow. Or so does it not seem.

But if you are an art and nature lover, KIRISHIMA where this museum lies is a spiritual and inspiring place. Hiking around or even climbing one of 20 or so peaks should not be missed. Along with local legends and Japanese mythology surrounding these mountains you will come to touch with ancient Japan.

Forest Observatory; shadows of the trees surrounding the installation create this silhouette.

NOZAKI residence, the largest of this kind I've ever seen

It was more than ten years ago that I first came here as part of the four. I do not remember how the tour was and how the travelers liked the house. Come to think of it this time, however, the house is huge. Now there's a street called JEANS STREET near the house. People must come to the house and take a stroll along the Jeans street where jeans and other denim goods are on sale. Nice destination. 

 The garden is well maintained and grand

 So many rooms

 42 meters from this end to the other end

Room after room !!

 Funny animal in the garden 

Must be BIZEN ware, since it's a local pottery in Okayama.

 Lovable guy in the garden, also BIZEN 

 Clean, peaceful, and pastoral

 All storehouses !!

The NOZAKI family prospered as a very wealthy merchant family and dealt with salt making, for one thing.

Stay overnight in TESHIMA and you will love it

Majority of people just go to NAOSHIMA and leave. But think twice and stay longer. Both TESHIMA and INUJIMA give you different experiences from NAOSHIMA. Since you've come this far, do not leave so soon. One or two nights in NAOSHIMA and two or even three nights in TESHIMA so that you can be in TESHIMA at sunset and sunrise and can go to INUJIMA and come back. Now there are at least two ways you can stay overnight in TESHIMA, whether at LEMON HOTEL or an islander's private home which accepts visitors. Both will be unforgettable for you. Maybe you should try both. In TESHIMA, you will enjoy art, food, walking, hiking, and riding a bike in beautiful settings. Community bus will not be so convenient but riding a bike in the island is so much fun, more so than in NAOSHMA. you will rent an electric bike because some part of the roads in TESHIMA are steep. That's why the scenery is fantastic from the hill. It's also fun to take a stroll around LEMON HOTEL. I did it early in the morning and saw the sun rise. Walking along the terraced rice field with the sun rising cleansed my soul. Hiking up DANYAMA hill will be a good challenge and gives you fantastic views of the Seto Inland Sea. These are the memories that you will cherish for a very long time to come. 

 Fresh Strawberries in crepe, yum!

Try TESHIMA DRY, orange, strawberry, or tomato

 From DANYAMA

 BY female artist SHIOTA: further memory

 TESHIMA MUSEUM of course

 LEMON HOTEL bathroom

LEMON HOTEL before dawn

 Lemons at LEMON HOTEL

 DO CHEEKY LEMON, it says

 Sunrise and an outdoor artwork

Paper cranes in spiral @ ORIZURU Tower

 Picture painted by SATO Shuho

The ORIZURU Tower is a lot of fun. The SAMPO spiral slope is both practical and amusing. It's a beautigful slope you can go down or up; the sliders are fun to slide down each floor; and the walls are artistic. The walls of the spiral slope are adorned by paintings by SATO - one of them is the picture posted here: the ORIZURU paper cranes flying in spiral. 

Try making ORIZURU or paper crane

You can try at ORIZURU Tower. Now visitors from overseas have an advantage. It just started and will last until June 30. Your admission to the tower with the right to drop the cranes you made with the paper which comes with the admission is discounted in half - 1100 yen. Even if it's 2200 yen, I still recommend the tower highly but now is your chance. 

Introduction to ORIZURU Tower

http://www.orizurutower.jp/en/

Ticket information is as follows.

http://www.orizurutower.jp/en/user-guide/ticket/

    ORIZURU glass well where you can drop your cranes

The lower part of the well is decorated with large hanging cranes. In the center of the picture are the cranes people made and released from the floor beneath the observation deck where "Hiroshima hills" is built.

    The spiral of cranes is a symbol of this building

Paper, spiral, and paper cranes are three keys to ORIZURU Tower.

A copper pavilion in Kyoto

Kyoto has a gold pavilion, a silver pavilion, and even a copper pavilion. But the last is not so known though people notice it easily but tend to ignore. When you take a stroll in higashiyama, you will come across with this. This really was intended to be a copper pavilion when Mr. Otani, a successful businessman, built his second house. The house was later sold to a temple and now the pavilion stands on the premises of DAIUNJI temple. It was designed by ITO Chuta, who also designed TSUKIJI HONGANJI in TSUKIJI, Tokyo. The pavilion is modeled on a float with a pike used for the GION FESTIVAL which has been held in summer in Kyoto. The GION FESTIVAL has a long history of more than 1000 years with the purpose of warding off evil spirits which might cause plagues.

 The copper pavilion in higashiyama

MATSUO SHRINE, my favorite in Kyoto

Many only go to ARASHIYAMA and SAGA to see bamboo forests and take a stroll. Perhaps a hike up to IWATAYAMA to see snow monkeys. But I go to MATSUO JINJA Shinto shrine. You can easily go there by HANKYU train which also takes you to arashiyama. 

This relatively quiet shrine has a long history, older than capital Kyoto. On the mountain at the rear of the shrine is a natural rock formation where the invisible divine comes down and possesses the rocks as their seats. The shrine has a number of old wooden Shinto statues made under the influence of Buddhism exhibited in their treasure room. 

In addition, the gardens designed by SHIGEMORI Mirei are so interesting. If you are a garden lover, you should check him out. The shrine is a tutelary shrine for sake breweries because the divinity enshrined there are believed to be a sake making guardian. A little sake museum stands on the premises. So much to appreciate and talk about in a quiet comfortable setting. I love the shrine.

 

    The year of the rooster, special exhibit

 Graceful meandering stream 

 The garden of spontaneity 

 

    Reminder of an ancient garden but with contemporary feelings

 

   And the garden behind a dumpling store, hard to find

Ando's architecture in Kyoto

One is a commercial building named TIME'S. There's a Mexican restaurant I love on the lower floor which is almost parallel with the steam level flowing by the building. It's Takasegawa river and the restaurant is called AVOCADO.

Another is a headquarter building of a jewelry shop NIWAKA and on its first floor lies a select shop, Kyoto Design House where good things from Kyoto can be purchased.

 Chairs belong to AVOCADO

 

   Doors on the right of the building lead to Kyoto Design House

SAIHO-JI moss garden temple in Kyoto

Reservation is required for the admission to this temple known as KOKE-dera. Therefore you need an extra effort to go there but still many people go. Because of this restriction, however, the crowd is controlled and you can have a piece of mind in busy Kyoto. Some of the visitors of one session are always from abroad. 

First you are requested to take off your shoes, invited into the main hall where you sit - chairs are also prepared on the veranda surrounding the main room when it's warm - and join an easy ritual like listening to a temple monk chant a Buddhist scripture, tracing a short Buddhist scripture, or writing down your wish on a thin wooden bar of hand-holding size. Then you are invited into the famed garden covered with moss and stroll freely. 

The moss garden is so well-noted that people tend to ignore the upper part of the dry landscape garden. Little remains there except a rock formation supposedly representing a three-leveled waterfall but that's where the legacy from the original garden built in the 14th century remains.

The temple itself is older than the garden from the 14th century. Legendarily, it was first a villa of imperial prince SHOTOKU from the 7th century. The temple has a long history but the restoration by a prominent ZEN Buddhist monk MUSO SOSEKI in 1339 was a turning point of this temple. Another important incident should have happened in the middle of the 19th century when Japan was still feudalistic but soon greeting a new age to become a modern state. The temple had been deserted and began to be covered with moss probably because of suitable humidity from a stream nearby. Thanks to that, though, the temple is now renowned as KOKE or moss temple. 

The ASHIKAGA shogun generals often came to the temple in the 14th century after the temple was restored by MUSO. In fact, the famed Rokuonji GOLDEN PAVILION TEMPLE and Jishoji SILVER PAVILION TEMPLE built by ASHIKAGA shoguns respectively were based on the design of this temple and garden.

Steve Jobs often came here with the family.

 The first part of the garden 

 

   Three rocks are in typical formation but almost covered with moss

 Three-leveled Waterfall

    The real thing looks much better than the picture

Fantastic new elementary school in a small town

One of the major industries in this community was forestry and lumber. It still is but reduced in scale. 

But residents who form a support group for their community helped this woody school to be built. One major forestry and lumber company donated wood itself. It is now complete and waiting for the kids to come. Small people should be surrounded with an appropriate environment and grow in good health.

 Second floor

 Wood all the way down 

 Classroom

 These poles are all solid.

 Janitor's room sign

Misty TAKAHARA on the KUMANO KODO pilgrimage route

 

View from TAKAHARA 

In July of 2004 the three sacred sites of Koyasan, Yoshino & Omine, and the Kumano Sanzan (the Three Grand Shrines of Kumano) along with the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage routes that connect them, were registered on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list as the "Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range". Obscure KUMANO came to be known to the world this way.

The Kumano Sankeimichi, locally known as the Kumano Kodo, is a network of ancient pilgrimage routes across the Kii Peninsula and an integral part of this World Heritage site. 

One of the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage routes was the Nakahechi route.

Starting in the 10th century, the Nakahechi route was extensively used by the imperial family, particularly retired emperors, on pilgrimage from Kyoto. With them came lots of aristocrats. This route came to be recognized as the official pilgrimage route. From the 11th to 13th, the nobles took this route and repeated their visits more than 100 times in total.

Oji subsidiary shrines of the Kumano deity lined the route. Many still remain but others are only in ruins. But you will feel the vibration from the past.

In addition to these small shrines, local shrines or temples stand along the pilgrimage route. They can be good destinations for your walk and spice up your trekking.

Pics here are from the TAKAHARA district on the hill in Nakahechi. TAKAHARA is nicknamed 'misty mountain village' because of its foggy climate. There stands the old shrine TAKAHARA KUMANO SHRINE.

Many start their Nakaheji route walk at Takijiri-oji. It will take two hours from Takijiri to the shrine on the hill.

 

     TAKAHARA KUMANO shrine close-up

 Guardian animals and its butt

 Camphor trees sour on the grounds of the shrine

 You can dine or stay here

      And the room with two beds and a great view

 KUMANO kodo sign