March 27
Yesterday had been a long day and basically after we ate some dinner we head to bed and 10 hours later we wake up. It was warm and cozy in our Japanese style house. Our hosts invited us over for tea before we left to visit Iwayaji. We got a better look at the observatory and learned that it was built by our host.
A lot of mornings, clouds cover the valley below as well as the mountains making it look like a sea of clouds, hence the name Sea of Clouds for the lodging. This is not the case this morning as the sun is shining brightly and the sky clear blue. Sorry not to see the clouds, but really happy that we are going to visit temple 45 on a clear and beautiful day.
Looking at the town of Kuma below us. Previously we mentioned about the alerts from speakers going off 3 times a day. Inside our hosts house was a speaker that broadcasted theses alerts as well. Definitely a way to keep up on current events.
Inside the office, before we left to visit the temple.
Our host before leaving for the day.
We headed down the pathway, glad that we were not carrying our packs.
It looks like it will be about 14 miles round trip today. There are two ways to approach this temple, one is to come from the top going over a mountain to reach it, The other way is to to walk via the road and arrive to the temple at the parking lot and then use lots of steps to make your way up to the temple grounds. We thought that we would do both ways. Take the road first and then go back to our lodging by the mountain trail. We came down a trail from our lodging and intersected the highway. It was a pavement walk that after awhile, made us wonder if we had made the right choice. There was a lot of downhill and one always thinks, what goes down must go up. We wondered how far we were going to have to go up. On a positive note, we stopped to get some drinks at a vending machine and purchased the best white grape drink that we had tasted. Eventaully we saw a sign that made us realize we were close. There are certain temples on this route that gets rated as more impressive, both due to the location as well as the Temple grounds. Temple 45 is one of them. We were glad that we had dedicated most of a day to explore the temple. After walking into the parking lot we noticed a lot of vendors selling souvenirs. This is not common at most of the temples. There was a sign pointing us to the temple going up stairs and then more stairs.
There were colorful banners on both sides of the path.
On the way up we passed a lot of memorials including this one.
When we reached to where some of the Halls are located, we noticed all the people. Most had driven here.
Some of the halls are built right into the rocks.
It has been said that a lot of the caves behind thee buildings were where monks would sit and meditate.
There was a ladder that one could climb to one of these caves. I climbed up to check it out.
This was the view from the cave. A peaceful place to meditate.
We had several interesting encounters with people that we met here. One woman approached us and wanted to know how old we were. She was 73 as well, but had driven here. She was impressed that we had walked here. She wanted to give me a mala. which are prayer beads. When meditating at the temple you hold them between your hands.
Here is the photo of the woman that gave me the Mala..
While I was looking at some of the memorials, a woman approached Don and wanted to take his photo in different poses. She would tell him where to stand or kneel and how to hold his hands. She wanted to make sure that he had good memories of this place.
She had him stand in several places and then kneel. Don then took a photo of her. Her husband then gave us a package of candy as ossetai.
We meet Lisa from Germany again who was so happy that the rain has stopped. Renee was here as well and then we saw Jean_Pierre coming thru the gate after coming down from the Mountain. We told him that he looked like an angel in his white clothing.
Jean-Pierre Louis. Anne had decided to take the day off so he was by himself;
We spent more time looking at the buildings and all of the memorials.
We are always amazed at the fine details of the wood working on the structures. Renee told us that we should definitely hike back up the mountain and check all the 36 statues of Buddha along the way.
Heading up the mountain
Looking back down at the gate. The trail goes up and down at the beginning as it passes the Buddha statues
This route was going to be slower than the road, but it was so more peaceful and beautiful .We met Benjamin from France, who wanted to share more places we could camp. A couple of other groups also passed us wanting to know how much further they had to go. This route is known as Nansho which means difficult. The trail lived up to the name. It was great knowing we had a nice place to stay tonight. The advise of spending time visiting this temple was great.
We made it back to Sea of Clouds and were greeted by the hosts. He showed us one of the bee hives that he was working on. From the size of the hive, it had to be successful at making honey.
We also checked out a small memorial that he had made on his property. He had built a wooden walkway up to it.
They invited us in to have another cup of tea with them and some Japanese crackers. Since they knew we were planning on leaving early in the morning, we decided taking a photo of all of us now would be best.
What a great day of making memories and continuing to learn about the Japanese culture.
Accommodation Sea of Clouds
Slack Packing 14 miles