Sanbe San

This is the draincover for the town of Oda, a fairly nondescript town close to the border between Iwami and Izumo. The mountains in the background are known as Sanbesan, and are the highest in Shimane at 1,126 m above sea level.

Oda does not have much to see for tourists, and is pretty much just the rail access point for visitors to the nearby World Heritage site of Iwami Ginzan, but I did wander around last fall hunting the fall colors.

This view of Sanbesan is from near my house, and must be about 25k distant as the crow flies. I took the photo on a winter walk up Maruyama.

On the lower slopes. Sanbesan is actually a cluster of 7 volcanoes, and the highest one is named Osanbesan. We were on our way to visit the Buried Forest Museum, actually a fascinating place where you can go below ground and see 4,000 year old trees that were buried in a major eruption.

This is on the south side, and its where I slept out before climbing to the top early the next morning. I had walked two days from my house to get here. One of these days I will write up that walk :)