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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Nakayama Terraced Rice Paddies Shodoshima

 

Deep in the interior of Shodoshima Island is an area of terraced rice paddies.

There are said to be about 800 terraces.

They were constructed by clearing the forest and using stone retaining walls.

It was done during the 14th century,

It is in the top 100 rice terraces in Japan.

The paddies are fed by spring water originating in the grounds of the next temple I will visit on the Shodoshima Pilgrimage, temple 44, Yufuneyama Renge Temple.

The spring is listed in the Top 100 waters of Japan,

The Japanese do seem to have a fascination with rice paddy terraces and do offer tours to them, but for the rest of us they can be seen while walking the pilgimage. If you visit in May and June when they are recently flooded and planted then they are a bit more impressive. I was here mid winter so not so attractive.

The previous post in this series was on the nearby temples 43 & 45.

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Typical Japanese landscape

Way back, many years ago, when I started this blog I did a series of posts titled Typical Japanese landscape. Of course they were quite varied, some being urban some rural etc. Unfortunately, all these posts have lost their photos because of a change in hosting.

Usually every May I go for a walk in the mountains somewhere specifically to take photos of freshly flooded nd planted paddies/ The combination of reflection with clear blue skies and fresh green is irresistible to me.

This year because of the pandemic travel was limited so I had to make do with a late afternoon walk around my own village.

These scenes and views are comparable to what can be found throughout Japan right now.