Hunting the Fall Color 2016 Day 8

The penultimate day of my walk was continuing on along the Nakasendo. The Post Town of Samegai was a pleasant surprise.....

Out in the country between villages a splash of color marked the site of a monument to someone I had never heard of.....

In the garden of a house in Kashiwabara the orange of ripe persimmons was another of the colors of autumn.

There was still a good bit of a sunny day left by the time I reached Sekigahara, and not having a lot of interest in samurai and their bloodthirsty battles I headed back to Hikone to explore some temples and shrines on Mt Sawayama to the northeast of Hikone Castle. The approach to Ii Shrine, enshrining one of the later Ii daimyos in the mid 19th Century was beautiful though the intricately carved shrine is completely enclosed in corrugated metal sheeting as it is in serious disrepair.

The big surprise of the day was Ryotanji Temple with several lovely gardens and a big collection of painted screens.....