Hamahara Bridge to Hamahara Dam

 

Behind me is Mount Sanbe, the highest mountain in Iwami, a volcano that last erupted about 4,000 years ago.

The first 3 days of my walk upriver, the river, though wildly twisty at times, roughly headed east to northeast. Now for the next few days walking it heads south to southeast.

It's cherry blossom season, and they are not hard to find. Japan went on an orgy of cherry tree planting in the early years of the twentieth century, and then again in the postwar period.

At this point on the river, this bank continues to be the less settled bank, with the quieter road

However, I do pass through Takibara.

Big enough to have a shrine and a temple. 

I passed on the opposite bank a few days before writing up this post, and now Takibara is home to a big, modern canoe centre, but it was not there when  I passed through on this trip.

I have a dislike of Hamahara Dam. It floods my garden.

For some reason it cannot release floodwater until it is full, so it then releases so much water we get flooded downstream. It does not start releasing the water slowly as it builds up so the river would rise slowly and not flood downstream.

Apparently 70% of dams in Japan are built this way.

It was completed in 1953.

Water in the reservoir behind the dam travels in pipes through the mountains to a gravity-fed hydro power station further downstream. I passed by it on day 3 of my walk, but didnt take a photo.

The previous post in this series was on the section from Kasubuchi to Hamahara Bridge.

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 It will not be published or made public.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.