Okidomari Port & the Ginzan Highway

 

I started day 38 of my walk alog the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage at Okidomari, the small port that serviced the Iwami Ginzan silver mines. The port and the mines as well as the road I am taking, the Ginzan Kaido, are all part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

For more info on the port and Ginzan Kaido, please see this earlier post.

The next temples on the pilgrimage are a cluster around Izumo. The fastes way would be togo straight up the national highway, route 9, but it would also be the most boring. One of the temples is in the foothills of the Chugoku Mountains, so I have decided to cut inland and head along a mountainous route.

There are still a few houses inhabited in the old harbour village, but less each time I visit.

The Ginzan Kaido heads up through the settlement and then into a  bamboo grove before climbing out.

Not as manicured as the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, but 10,000 percent fewer people....

The previous post was on the last stop of the day before, Kannonji Temple in Gotsu Honmachi

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To Kasubuchi to end the Third Day

 

A short walk after leaving the Ago Ohashi Bridge, the river turns towards the north and will stay north until the small town of Kasubuchi.

Part of some transformers at a small power station using water piped from upstream and then dropped from a height to power turbines....

Other than a few thatched farmhouses with tin covers, not much of note until reaching Kasubuchi.

I cross via a fairly new bridge, the Akebono Ohashi, completed in 1992.

A little downstream is the old railway bridge. It was unusual in that it also had a pedestrian section.

Unfortunately, since the rail line closed, they also closed the pedestrian section.

The bridge has been dismantled since I was there on this trip.

In Kasubuchi I catch a small, local bus downstream and head home to end day three of my walk along the Gonokawa River to its source. The train used to take between 70 and 90 minutes. The bus will take almost three hours.

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Kannonji Temple 27 Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage

 

Kannonji is located in Gotsu Honmachi, the old, original town, slightly upstream from the mouth of the Gonokawa River.

Overlooking the old part of town, it is a Rinzai Zen temple, but can find no other information at all

This was the final stop for day 37 on the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage, and day 18 on the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage. This was the last day I walked them both concurrently. From day 38 I will be back to just walking the Chugoku.

The previous post was on the walk along the beach into Gotsu.

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Miscellaneous Namba Architecture

 

After leaving the Osaka Science Museum I headed to the station to head out for an appointment.

Along the way I took these snapshots of various architectural details, as for me, a long time resident of really rural Japan, they were exotic and interesting.....

I am still uncomfortable in the large parts of Osaka that are underground......

None of the photos are of particularly famous or interesting architecture, simply a record of what took my eye as I walked to the station.

The previous post was on the Osaka Science Museum.

If you would like to subscribe by email, just leave your email address in the comments below. It will not be published or made public. I post new content almost every day, and send out an email about twice a month with short descriptions and links to the last ten posts.