A Walk to Mine

 

Where I grew up, December 26th is known as Boxing Day. On Boxing Day, 2014, I began my 26th day walking along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage.

This was a symbolic point in the journey as I had been moving primarily west for the previous 25 days, but now I turn north and then start to head East.

I had started in Okayama, then headed west through Hiroshima and then into Yamaguchi. Though there had been many detours, it was primarily along the coast of those prefectures. Now I head to the Japan Sea coast of Yamaguchi and then head east, primarily along the coast, through Yamaguchi, then Shimane, and then Tottori.

I had just visited the 19th of 37 temples, the 33 main temples plus 4 "extra" temples, so I had passed the halfway point in that regard. My route now would be much straighter than the first half, so I am well over halfway in terms of kilometers and days. The next half of the pilgrimage will be far less populated.

The next temple was in Hagi, and on this day I would get as far as Mine.

My destination was to the NE so I started out walking up the Koya River, passing under the Shinkansen Line, before crossing over to the Hara River which ran into the Asa River heading into Mine.

Not sure what kind of bird this was that was unfortunate enough to have been hit by a vehicle.

It was fairly typical rural landscape, with plenty of paddies and plenty of dilapidated buildings...

I stopped in at a couple of interesting shrines, and will cover them in the next post in the series...

I would have thought that the small, unmanned, rural buildings that sell porn and related products through vending machines would be dying out with the prevalence of online shopping and online porn, but Pink Joy seems to be very new, so obviously still worth investing in... I have noticed that the ones I have encountered in Chugoku have much more advertising on the exterior. The ones I came across in Kyushu usually just had a small nameboard.... no flags nor bright posters like here

Two of the most common birds I come across in the countryside are the heron

and the egret...

The previous post was on the fascinating Imimiya Shrine I visited the day before.

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Keitakuen Garden

In Tennoji Park, tucked  behind the Municipal Museum of Art is Keitakuen garden.

A modern garden, built for the wealthy Sumitomo Family who constructed a mansion nearby.

The garden, a stroll type built around a large pond, was designed by Jihei Ogawa who also designed the garden at Heian Jingu Shrine in Kyoto.

It is surprisingly good, though obviously it helps if the weather is good. and only 150 yen for the entrance.

Skittish Egret

There are quite a few species of Egret (sagi in Japanese) in Japan, but I am not sure which one this is.

There are common, especially in rice paddies and rivers.

They are far more skittish than their cousins the Grey Heron, and if you stop to take a photo even from a distance they will fly off.

So I was really surprised to find one on the road while I was walking in the foothills of Izumo, but it did quickly fly off.

Other posts on Egrets, and the Sagi Mai, incorrectly translated as the Heron Dance can be found here.

Season of the Frog Part 2: Egrets

With the flooding of the paddies in late spring, there is an explosion of frogs. This has effects on other species in the vicinity, not the least of which is us gardeners. There are dozens of frogs in my garden, and as frogs eat insects, I'm quite happy about that.

Snakes come out from the forest and feast on the cornucopia of small frogs, and this afternoon I watched a flock of egrets come in for the feast. They don't mind vehicles driving by, but will up and fly away if a human gets within 100 metres.

The egret, related to and often seen with herons, can be found all over Japan, and in total there are 18 different species, but I'm not ornithologist enough to be able to tell which species these were,

In the streams that run through villages and urban areas, the herons and egrets are less skittish.

Another post on egrets