A slower start to the day, and on consulting the weather, the forecast rain didn't seem very helpful. We looked up our books, and decided a trip out of Takamatsu on the train to a famous Shinto shrine might be just the ticket for the day.
So off we went to the station, waved our rail pass to the guards, and set off on the train for the Kotohira-gu temple, visited by 4 million people a year! The rain continued gently and we alighted, donned our jackets, and walked off to the shrine. On the way we saw the tallest wooden lantern in Japan, originally used as a lighthouse.
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| Japan's tallest wooden lantern |
We were feeling peckish, and decided to eat before our climb up to the temple rather than after. A cheerful lady touting for business caught my eye, and we had another good udon dish prepared by presumably her husband. Most of the restaurants seem to be family-run, and generally the servers and cooks are pretty old. We wonder what will happen in 10 years when they stop working.
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| Kotohira main street |
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| The ubiquitous vending machines - 100-180 JPY per item |
The shrine has a fearsome set of 785 steps up to it, but it made it all the more worthwhile. In fact the path up was fabulous, as it passed many smaller shrines, and literally hundreds of lovely stone lanterns, and thousands of stone pillars inscribed in kanji. By now the rain had more or less stopped, and we got very hot climbing up in all our warm gear. Temperatures now into the low teens, a nice change from the low single digits in Kanazawa. The shrine itself was pretty interesting, and we were lucky enough to see a quick ceremony, with a husband and wife being blessed perhaps. The husband got a little stool, his wife had to kneel beside him.
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| On the way up |
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| Beautiful stone lanterns lining the route |
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| Shinto ceremony in the mani shrine |
Since we were well on the way up the hill, we finished off doing the full 1368 steps to the last little shrine. After a few moments at the top, we set off down again, slowly cooling off in the misty rain.
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| Gate to the upper shrines |
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| The final shrine |
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| And the view from the top |
Part way back was Omote Shoin, a very old reception hall from 1659, distinguished by fabulous wall paintings by Maruyama Okyo.
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| Omote Shoin reception hall |
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| Famous painting by Maruyama Okyo - Tiger Drinking |
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| 7 Sages |
The train route passed through the Kinashi district, the source of more than 80% of Japan's bonsai pine trees. We hadn't realised until this trip that bonsai isn't just about tiny trees, as the bulk are actually quite large pine trees for use in outside gardens, and can be seen everywhere.
