Jimmuji

Well well, one lives and learns!

It turns out there is a quite large, if not actually giant, Buddha statue just 25 minutes from Oppama station (15 coming back down)! Now who would have thought!

I found out about this by hunting around on Internet for interesting things to do in the area. There is a blog that talks about this trail that goes from Jimmuji station to Oppama station where one sees this large Buddha. So I first set off to the nearest shop to get myself some maps, and then set off early this morning to investigate this trail.

And it was absolutely 100% worth it!

I took the train to Jimmuji station, and the blog clearly explained how to get onto the trail. From there on it was easy to follow, as I have now learned enough Katakana to read the signs that said "hikingu coosu" this way.

Garden of the home.

The beginning of the trail goes past a school and then the most wonderful old-people's home I have ever seen. The pictures are of the rear garden of the home, which is not bad at all! But they also had some chicken coops and other bird cages, and a little cosy house, probably for a cat. Very very nice place.

After that the path winds slowly up the hill following a small stream, with tons of vines and ferns and liverwarts. Then at the top of the hill it gets into the dryer forests, with japanese cypress and bamboo. I took a little detour path to where some cherry trees grow to see if they had fall colours, but they had already lost all their leaves.

So back onto the main path, and through a large temple complex. Here too, some worderful gardens.

From there, the path meandered along the crest of the hill, with a few autumn colours starting, but an unfortunate number of high tension lines right across the view.

Then after a bit of rough path (but with chains and cords to help you), you get to the lookout tower, and the climbing rocks. From the look-out tower you can see everything from Yokohama in the distance to the North, Oppama and JAMSTEC straight East, Yokosuka and the lighthouse at Uraga to the South-East.

And then Zushi and Sagami Bay to the West, and Mt Fuji in the distance, barely visible though the clowds and the power lines. (between the 2nd and 3rd group of cables from the top)

And of course, right in front of Oppama, you can clearly see the Buddha, rising out of the nice orange and yellow chestnut trees. (to the left in the photo)

It's a couple minutes to the Buddha from the lookout tower, passing by all the different climbing rocks.

The statue itself is very impressive, both from the tower and up close, and is, indeed, very big. Standing on some rocks I still could not even reach it's feet!

And all that, right behind the house, almost! I shalll definitely be going back that way again!

And I promise I will be buying new batteries for my camera soon, so that I can show you photos that are in focus next time!

Stoll

The weather today is just cool enough, with just the right amount of sun and wind, that staying inside is just impossible.

After a morning spent attempting to work, and failing, I set off for a stroll in the sun. I went up to the little park near the house that I had visited on my first day in Japan. Then off down the northern side of the hill, towards Kanazawa-hakkei.

There is a small little valley there, between 2 steep hills, with a small canal running down the middle. Following the canal is a small little walkway with some extremely pretty houses, all covered in flowers. At the top of the next hill you get some nice views of Oppama.

Then off down the hill and up the next, which is much more countryside-ish. And as it doesn't feel like the city anymore I took the oportunity to do some wildlife viewing stops.

With at the menu a couple nice catterpilars, and a most amusing grey squirrel. I must have spent nearly 10 minutes watching him, as he picked the chestnuts out of the husks and threw the finished fruit out of the tree. He wasn't the least concerned about me, and I was quite happy that someone had left a convenient staircase right next to the chesnut tree. It was a bit unfortunate, however, that someone had also left a whole battalion of mosquitoes there.... And it was the continued presence of those mosquitoes, and not the disappearance of the squirrel that caused me to move on.

On the other side of that hill you get back onto the flat ground, but there are still a lot of very nice gardens here. Then you cross the train tracks and you're back on the main road to Kanazawa-hakkei. I did not care to attempt another mosquito-infested forest, so went off to the station. Where I did my civil duty by helping an american couple figure out which train they wanted to take.

A very nice stroll, on a perfect Saturday. I can't wait till the leaves start really turning colour though!

Homestay

My first small japanese class came with a homestay program, which turned out to be a wonderful experience. I had some doubts about this as first, as I am very shy.

The host family were very fun and they have a cute little cocker spaniel. I spent my afternoons learning about food, mostly, as the host mother loves to cook. My homework will be to have to try all of these recipes out for myself! We even went to an orchard to pick japanese pears. The pears look like brown apples, are the size of a small grapefruit and have very firm and sweet flesh. Very very tasty.

When not eating we spent a lot of time in Tokyo, going window shopping in all the chic areas. But also went to a very nice aquarium near their house in Chiba.

I was also very happy with the japanese classes (I will be continuing in the Yokohama branch of the same school). So all in all it was a wonderful experience that ended all too soon.

Nikko National Park

The second part of our Nikko trip took us up into the monutains behind Nikko. It is just over an hour and a half to the last lake accessible by bus, but the view is so wonderful the time passes quite quickly. I even saw a monkey near the road on our first trip up the mountain.

In the first part of the bus route is the Irohazaka slope, an area so steap they had to split the road into 2 one-way roads. The 5 km of switchbacks give passengers on both side of the bus to see the great view of the valley bellow, but they're much more fun going up than comming down.

Our hiking trip started with Yunoko lake, which tends to bubble a bit to itself and smell of sulfur. The hot water must give just this little extra to the lake, as there are some big carp in it, and even some ingenious fishermen.

The hiking paths are extremely well kept, with wooden walkways most of the way. This makes the walk very restful, only bothered now and then by the bells a lot of Japanese hang on their bags. By the sound of a Japanese walking group you'd think you'd just entered grizzly territory...

The path took us from Yunoko lake to Yutaki falls, then on through oak forests with bamboo undergrowth, which oppened up into a high plateau plain with marshes on the edge. The marsh is drained by a nice little river which then goes off down the mountain in a long series of falls before reaching Chuzenji lake.

It was right along this lake that we saw our second monkey, and this one right up and personal. It was foraging for acorns along the path and wasn't really afraid of us at all (we weren't moving). It ate all the acorns on the uphill side of the path, sat in the middle of the path and looked up at the tree a bit, and then wandered off, obviously deciding it wasn't worth waiting for them to fall. As all this happened just 4m away, we were entranced.

Chuzenji lake is a lake so large and flat that you just feel like taking a boat out to fish. This is, in fact, what a lot of people think too, and it used to be quite a famous resort, untill the resort house burnt down. It says on the info pannel that "all that was left of the house was the mantlepiece". And, indeed, the chimney is still standing, all alone in the middle of it's own little garden. Very cute.

Now this lake cannot possibly be more peaceful. Yet at the end of this lake are Kegon falls, which is the most impressive waterfall I've ever seen! It's not that wide, and the river leading to it is quite small, as rivers go, but the water just gets to the end of the forest, and plunges, 97m straight down, before continuing it's rather peaceful course down the mountain. The impressive view of this waterfall is added to, I find, by the numerous little waterfalls comming straight out of the rock, about half way down the main fall.

We actually went to Kegon falls on the morning of the 3rd day, due to the arrival of the afternoon thunderstorm. This meant we had the whole waterfall just to us. It was absolutely amazing.

Nikko - Wold Heritage Site

Back in Japan! With the rice fields now ripe and being harvested, and the Tokyo sky tower having grown tremendously, but my faithful Keikyu line always the same.

And how better to celebrate my return than to go to Nikko, a medium town in central Japan that boasts both a world heritage site and a superb national park!

We visited the world heritage site the first day, before we had gotten the hang of the Nikko weather problem. Nikko being a good 3 hours north of Tokyo, it was early afternoon by the time we set out to view our first shrines. It turns out this is about the time the afternoon thunderstorm arrives. So we had a nice visit of Rinnoji temple, which contains 3 very large golden buddhas and much golden decoration. Then found the storm had started so spent about an hour in the small temple opposite looking at the impressive thunder and lightning display, before going on the the rest of the shrines.

All the shrines and temples in this group are extremely elaborate, with many-layered roofs and much lacquer and red paint.

It is therefore a bit disappointing to find that the world-famous "3 wise monkeys" are in fact a quite small bas-relief on a smallish, rather plain temple. I guess they didn't find it that interesting when they built the shrines.

The whole shrine and temple complex is linked to the rest of the town by the Shinkyo sacred bridge, and it is a very pleasant walk up and down the old stone paths and stairs that connect all the shrines, in the shade of huge cypress trees.