Even though I would love to discover something new every day, I don't get out enough these weeks. There's always too much to do, and when we do finally get out again, there's usually not enough time to go on a big tour. But fortunately, there are a few places in our area that are worth a repeat visit and where it's definitely a good idea to stop by more often.
I've usually discovered some of the places on my own and explored them for the first time by myself, and now I'm looking forward to coming there again with my little team and taking a closer look around. Even if not everyone always shares my passions, I have often managed to satisfy them all and offer them something interesting. At least the complaints in this regard are kept to a reasonable level and I still succeed in getting everyone who needs to come along on board or into the car. Trips are much more fun together and you can experience much more as a small group.
And so it happened that on an extremely sunny fall day, we went on another tour through our region and spontaneously made a little detour to a temple that I had already visited once a couple of years ago. Back then, I was on my way to work and had used the time window I still had for this first visit, taking a quick tour of the temple complex.
This time we weren't quite so tight on time, even though we still wanted to visit a few other destinations. And with the days getting shorter in the fall, you have to be careful that it doesn't suddenly get dark. But at least here at this temple, the sun was still quite high in the sky and we were able to take our time looking around.
We were the only visitors, apart from the hiker who had set off shortly before and taken the path directly into the forest. We, on the other hand, first walked towards the main gate, in front of which there were two Jizo statues waiting for us to the left and right of the path. I gladly took their blessing with me and was happy to pass it on again later.
The actual temple building was rather plain, but this probably made it fit in much better with this region and its people. Everything here is a little off the beaten track and visitors like us probably don't come here too often. But then again, that's what makes places like this so charming, which is perhaps why I like to visit them over and over again.
A little to the side, a few autumn colors appeared and the red of the maple was joined by the red of other small Jizo figures, whose task it is to watch over the wanderer and protect not only him but above all, the newborns from harm.
Right next to the temple was a rather large metal toori, which marked the entrance to a shrine. This place shows once again that Shintoism and Buddhism often form a harmonious symbiosis in Japan and can function together and side by side. This is not always the case for all the other religions in our world, so I am all the more pleased to be able to experience this in such charming places as this.
Here we see the basin for ritual hand cleansing, whose water is fed from a simple pipe and not guarded by an imposing dragon as is so often the case. Perhaps we will meet the dragon another time.
In the middle of the complex, a path led up the slope through another tori, this time red. To the left and right of the complex there are further trails that lead upwards and from there further into the mountains, to where our hiker disappeared in the beginning. We first went up on the left side and then came back down on the right past the apex. Now I was standing right in the middle and wanted to treat myself to another ascent.
This warning was attached to the left-hand post of the toori. Bears are not uncommon in this part of Japan and you have to be careful not to get too close to them, especially in the fall. Now is the time for them to eat up for their winter break before they go to rest in a few weeks and enjoy their well-deserved hibernation.
Until then, however, they are still hungry and need to find something to eat. And as you don't necessarily want to end up on the bears' menu yourself, you'd better watch out and stay away from them. And we didn't venture any further into the mountains either, but instead left it at this tour of the park.
Here we have another warning sign, this time telling people not to carelessly start a forest fire. I've often heard of wild and destructive forest fires in my homeland and other countries, but I haven't heard of any in Japan. One of my theories is that the abundant rainfall keeps the land moist enough so that it doesn't catch fire at the first spark. It does rain quite a lot, which is perhaps a blessing in this case.
This little swing was also tested on that day. It seems to have its best days behind it, and even though it may not be one of the best swings in the world, it still manages to make this place here right on the edge of the forest a little more inviting.
We had to move on and make our way to our next destination. We were bid farewell by this special message, which was probably the perfect ending to our visit here.
ささえあい助けあってみんなで元気にがんばろう
Sasae ai tasuke atte minna de genki ni ganbarou
Let's support each other, help each other, and do our best together.
Exactly, there's really nothing more to add. I looked back a few more times and was just glad to have made this short, spontaneous detour over here. My mood was good and so was the weather and we still had most of the afternoon ahead of us.
A pleasant feeling of gratitude that came up inside me showed me once again that sometimes it doesn't take much to feel good. Wonderful, hopefully something like this will happen many more times...
[//]:# (!pinmapple 37.77211 lat 139.15357 long d3scr)
