So I Lied...

Douhara Shrine

After I had given up all hope of doing anything constructive yesterday afternoon, I received a wee message from Liam asking if Alyssa and myself wanted to go on a mini roadtrip.

We drove for about an hour, (conversation was with raised voices as Liam's aircon is still bust so we had to have the windows down the whole way) dipping down into Yamagata prefecture - the prefecture directly beneath Akita. The drive took us part way up Mt Chokai (which straddles the border of Yamagata and Akita) to Douhara Shrine. I have just completed a vain google search to try and find some information on the shrine to accompany the photos, but given that two of the results were Liam's post on Intagram, I don't think there's much on it.

It was a pleasant walk over a winding path through the trees and under a weathered shrine gate. The track took you over planks that straddled the stream trickling down, and finally to the shrine that was framed by twin waterfalls either side. It was rather nice to be able to drink water that wasn't luke warm and there was a noticeable drop in temperature around the running water. The other thing that was noticeable was the signs warning of bears....

We started heading North again and, while still in Yamagata, stopped at the 16 Rakan. These are Faces that were carved into rocks by a buddhist monk around 1864. The Images of Buddha are meant to protect those on voyage, or the local fishermen. Our timing was perfect as the sunset was glowing a brilliant red when we arrived at the waterfront. On our clamberings, Alyssa discovered a pile of coins in a depression in the rock, you had to laugh when the majority of the coins were those pesky 1 yens that nobody wants.

The Shrine Gate

Sunset at 16 Rakan

16 Rakan

The most use 1 yen coins will ever be