Reflecting Paddies Around Mount Sanbe

 

I awake long before the sun at my perch overlooking the reservoir behind Sanbe Dam. I get up, stuff my bag into my pack, visit the public toilets for ablutions, grab a cold drink from the vending machine, and set off.

From here, there is more climbing until I get closer to Mount Sanbe, and I want to do as much of it as possible before the day warms up too much.

I am treated to a lovely surise....

Close to where the road cuts off and heads up to the facilities at the base of the mountain, the road tops out and gratefully, a slow descent begins

Since starting my walk yesterday morning, I have not passed by a single convenience store.

It's May 1st, 2015, around the time that Japanese now call Golden Week for the cluster of national holidays.

It's become one of my favorite times of the year to go walking in the real countryside of Japan, not the rice paddies dotted with factories and criss-crossed by Shinkansen lines and expressways that many see as "rural Japan", rather the mountain valleys that comprise 60% of the country.

It's a good time to sleep out..... hotels are outrageously expensive during Golden Week....

Mostly its for the rice paddies that have all been flooded, and if planted already, the rice seedlings are still small...... wonderful reflections....

The previous post was on yesterday afternoon's walk up to Sanbe Dam

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One Thousand Two Hundred Rakan

 

Rakan, or Arhats, usually come in groups of 500.

Said to be the disciples of the Buddha, many temples will have a full 500 statues, but many more will have a much smaller number.

Otagi Nembutsuji, a temple outside the main part of Arashiyama near Kyoto has an amzing 1200 of them.

Even more amazing is that they were only started to be made in 1981, part of something called the Showa Rakan Carving Project.

The head priest was a sculptor, and he encouraged visitors to the temple to carve small, simple, rakan statues.

He encouraged people to freely express themselves in the carving, and so the vast majority of the carvings are quite different from each other.

What is also surprising is how quickly moss and lichen begin to grow on the statues, thanks to Japans wet climate.

Previously I posted on the temple, its history, and the other deities and statues to be seen.

Next I will post some close-up portraits of some of the most distinctive rakan.

If you are using a computer to view this you can simply click on the "rakan" tag at the bottom of the post.

If you are using a phone, tough, because many features like that are not available....

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To Sanbe Dam

 

After leaving Mononobe Shrine I head up the Shizuma River.

Then I cut north and headed over the mountains to drop into the Sanbe River Valley.

I carried on up that river ever closer to Mount Sanbe, the highest point in Iwami.

An active volcano with a height of more than 1,100 meters...

The climb gets steeper as I leave the river bank and climb up towards the top of the dam.

A fairly standard dam, unable to release water until full.

The mountainside cloaked in concrete

An earlier post on Sanbe Dam shows more concrete....

Just pass the dam is a little park and cafe, but the cafe closes at 5, so that is where I shall lay out my sleeping bag for the night.

I can't see the actual sunset, but a nice enough show as the sun went down. And so ends day 38.

The previous post was on Mononobe Shrine.

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