Passing by Ago Ohashi Bridge on the Scenic Gonokawa River

I continue upriver towards the source...... 

Carrying on up the right/East bank of the Gonokawa River after leaving the red Kurihara Bridge

The former Sanko Line railway runs on this bank. Whereas some bridges have been dismantled, mostly in urban areas, here the small bridge remains...

Roadside altars are commonplace everywhere in Japan.... this one is quite substantial.... as usual someone locally keeps the  flowers replaced....

Quite a few thatched houses with metal covering the thatch...

The last time I walked by here the little gas station was still in business....

Up ahead, the Ago Ohashi Bridge comes into view....

It is a two-truss type...

Built in 1954, it is one of the oldest existant bridges across the Gonokawa...

for a purely stone type, this altar is quite big....

For the first 40k going up river, the river and landscape is quite similar and it can be hard to differentiate where you are from a photo...

Up ahead the top of Mount Sanbe. The highest point in Shimane and a volcano was last active about 4,000 years ago.

The river continues to head towards it for about 4 more kilometers before doing a 180 turn and heading away from it....

The previous post in this series was on the Kurihara Bridge

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Kurihara Bridge over the Gonokawa River

 

Kurihara Bridge is the 13th bridge across the Gonokawa River from the rivermouth in Gotsu on the Sea of Japan.

It is the seond of many that fall within the boundaries of Misato, a large collection of villages and mountains grouped together as a municipality in the mountainous interior of Shimane.

I was here on day 3 of my walk from the mouth of the river to the source. It is about 40-45 kilometers from the start.

The bridge opened in 1976.

It is a simple, two arch type of bridge.

The previous post in this series on my walk up the Gonokawa was on the short stretch between Onbara and here.

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Over the Mountains to Susa

 

After leaving Utago I pass by the relatively famous Sogogawa Bridge.

Built in 1932 it is 189 meters long with a slight curve, and carries the Sanin  Rail Line across the mouth of the Sogo River. Each time I have passed by, there has been a few train enthusiasts who travel from all over the country to snap shots of trains passing over the bridge with the sea as a background.

It's quite a buzz to travel over it by train too....

Now the narrow road heads over the high country before dropping down into Susa Bay.

There were many examples of the concrete grids that replace mountain slopes that have slipped. many were quite new indicating there were some storms recently.

Right at the high point before the road starts to wind down to Susa, was a single farm. No other people lived along the road.

Susa Bay is delightful. On the west side of Mount Takayama, the bay is formed of numerous inlets.

Mount Takayama is the highest mountain in some ways up or down the coast, and according to the curator at the local history museum, it was the landmark used by Susanoo as he sailed up the coast to Izumo on his trips to and from Korea. This is the origin of the town's name.

Across the bay in the mouth of a small inlet is an island with a substantial shrine on it. The island's name is Nakashima, and a gentleman walking his dog told me Benten is enshrined there.

The main harbour and port of Susa comes into view.

In the town, I stop in at a Miho Shrine. Enshrining Kotoshironushi from Mihonoseki, a secondary shrine has Susano as the kami. In the early 20th century with the "shrine consolidation" program, Sugawara Michizane, Konpira, and Ryugujin shrines were added.

The shrine building dates to 1984 following a major storm that destroyed it in 83.

The previous post in this series on day 31 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on the shrine in Utago, the last settlement before the walk over the mountains.

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Iwakuni to Obatake a Pleasant Walk Along the Seashore

 

11th November, 2014. After a good sleep in a hotel I am up before the sun and on my way down the Yamaguchi coastline on day 18 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage. Winter days are so short that I need to use all the available light. I am past the industrial areas when the sun comes up.

Usually where a river enters the sea will be a settlement....

The main Sanyo Line railway hugs the coast....

Someone getting ready to look for breakfast.....

Much of the route the road separated steepish slopes from the water....

Nice to see some sea defenses made out of stone and not concrete....

Beach used for school gym or sports class....

Every settlement has a harbour,,, usually with plentiful concrete...

A constant stream of planes heading in to land at Iwakuni. Both an American Marine base and a Japanese SDF base. American fighter jets from Iwakuni regularly buzz our village..... way below the legal altitude, something they would not do in a more populated area, they shake my house.... I guess the pilots are imagining themselves as Tom Cruise...

The Local History & Folklore Museum in the town of Yuu was intriguing.....

It was not open the day I passed by, but I believe much of their content is sea and fishing based...

Roadside attractions in Japan often veer towards the surreal and bizarre... As I approached my first thought was that it would be a restaurant and gift shop...

Sea defenses..... In general, I find the predominant Japanese attitude towards the natural world to be that it is an enemy. Something to be tamed, and controlled... like in a Japanese garden....

Not sure what plant these red berries are of.... though I have one in front of my house....

The Inland Sea is dotted with dozens and dozens of islands, many too small to have inhabitants.... in the far distance is the coast of Shikoku....

The channel between the mainland and Suo Oshima Island narrows. Stretching halfway across to Shikoku, Suo-Oshima is one of the bigger islands in the Inland Sea...

The Oshima Bridge crosses to Suo Oshima Island, a distance of about 1 kilometer. Time to start looking for a place to set out my sleeping bag.

The previous post in this series was on the previous day's walk from Miyajima to Iwakuni.