Day 5 of our Japanese adventure

So today we traveled by rail to the village of Hamakanaya.

It is a traditional old Japanese village, with narrow streets, shrines and statues.

 

It an hour and a half to reach the village by train, but it wasn't the village we had come to see. Graham had been researching places to visit a few weeks before we left and had found our next destination.

Mount Nokogiri (translates as sawtooth mountain) was where we were headed. Now for those of you who know me quite well, you will know that abseiling down a hundred foot rock face is child's play but to me a cable car is the most horrific idea in the known universe. Well

 

I took this photo from inside the cable car. Yes I am exceedingly proud of myself (although I did hold Mawgan's hand all the way up). It was no little ride either.

  This is the view from the cable car dock at the top. The small yellow box you can see in the distance is one of the cars. Each car can hold about 25 adults, although it is a bit cosy when full. 

There is a small cafe at the top which is wonderful on a hot day because the have ice-cream. Since it was 25C with a humidity of 85% I felt ice-creams all round. Needless to say Graham and Mawgan were not arguing. So 2 strawberry ice-creams and a frozen blueberry yoghurt later we set off on our journey of discovery.

After a very steep staircase we reached our first temple. This is the Jusshu Ichiran observatory

 You get magnificent views of Hamaknaya and on the opposite side the saw-tooth mountains. 

 Our next stop, was the Hyakushaku Kannon, this is the Buddhist goddess of mercy.

She stand Hundred Shaku (which is a Japanese measurement for the average length of a bamboo node),approximately 100ft tall. Many people leave small offerings, an few coins or incense.

I'm afraid I am complete knacked now and I shall share the rest of our Mt. Nokogiri adventure tomorrow. I will tell you I took photo's of the largest one in Japan.........

Back soon

Hugs

Buffy xx

p.s. to Gill, thank you for the comment and yes a craft day sounds great xx Maybe you should start blogging about all your adventures in Hong Kong/China. I'd definitely read it.