Things Seen Between Kannabiji and Chokoji

 

Late April, 2014, and I am on day 6 of my walk along the Iwami Kannon Pilgrimage. Visiting two temples today and I started from my home and headed upriver. First pilgrimage temple was Kannabiji, and the next is Chokoji. These photos are from things I noticed between the two temples.

Not far from Kannabiji is/was Mizunokuni, the top photo. A  museum specializing in water, I have visited often and most vistors I took rated it very highly. It closed down in 2018. Some shots from a last visit....

The second photo is a kura, storehouse, that has been beautifully restored. This third shot is one of the many roadside statues found everywhere. This one looks to have not been tended in quite a while.

From the water museum I head away from the Gonokawa River and up a side valley. I am pretty certain that on most days there is absolutely no traffic as it is a forest road that doesnt have any habitation along it.

A little further and you catch a glimpse of Sakamoto Falls. Climbing over the roadside crash barriet and edge along a rock outcropping and it becomes more clearly visible.

I can find no details about, height etc. I seem to remember that twenty years ago is was marked on maps as "Big waterfall".

A little further up the valley and I reach the side road that climbs out of it and over to Mihara. Right there at the junction is the skeleton of a wild boar.

A pretty big one, and it has been picked clean. Hard to believe it would have been a road kill as any traffic would be moving pretty slowly.

The road climbs through the forest and emerges in the farming settlement of Mihara. Nearby is Maruyama, a conical mountain on top of which once stood Maruyama Castle. The lord of that castle was a big supporter of both Kannabiji and Chokoji temples.

The rice paddies are all being flooded in preparation for planting in a week or two.

I head east across Mihara and then start to descend another empty, rural road towards Yudani where I will find Chokoji. No matter where you go in Japan you are never far from an expanse of concrete, whether it is on a mountainside or a coastline.

This badger was out and about in the middle of the day. Usually active at dusk and in the night, I have seen them occasionally during the day. here are a couple of post with short videos of badgers around my house. The previous post was on Kannabiji Temple.

Return of the Badger

Most evenings I hear the badger snuffling around just outside my house, so when I saw it yesterday afternoon I got out there with my camcorder and took a few shots....

other posts on the anaguma here

Typical Japanese landscape & anaguma update

This is a fairly typical shot of the Japanese landscape. I took it a couple of days ago on my trip up to Togawa. About 65% of Japan is forested mountains. In the distance you can see the roofs of Ichiyama. The lighter green down below are the rice paddies. Summer is my least favorite season in Japan, visually-speaking. Grey, green, and brown is the palette. The wet air and overhead sun makes a very monochromatic view. In the winter you have strong shadows and when there is snow, strong contrast. In the spring there are a multitude of shades of green from the new growth, and colors from the blossoms. In the fall you have blue skies, low sun making shadows, and the reds, browns, oranges and yellows of the changing leaves.

Stepped outside my front door yesterday and right in front of me were one of the local feral kittens and a juvenile badger (anaguma). They were studying each other inquisitively about 50 cms apart, no hackles raised. Unfortunately the badger ran off due to my intrusion, and all I could get was this one snap. It was not the badger I posted a video of recently , that was an adult, this was a juvenile about 30-35 cms in length. Why these usually nocturnal creatures are hanging out around my house during the day is a mystery.

Anaguma Japanese Badger

Anaguma Japanese Badger

This guy was rooting around in my back yard recently. I figured it was a tanuki, a racoon dog, but when I posted the video on another site someone pointed out that it was an Anaguma, a Japanese badger. They are quite similar animals, and Tanuki soup is quite often made with anaguma. It's the same species that is found all over Europe and Asia, Meles meles. They are found all over Japan. Anaguma are nocturnal creatures, so it was strange that it was out and about in the middle of the day. They are omnivorous, and it was rooting around one species of plant, so maybe it was going for the roots, maybe for bugs or worms. When I finally moved closer it just sauntered away nonchalantly. The name anaguma derives from 2 kanji that mean "hole", and "bear". We are visited often by creatures from the surrounding forest, usually at night. I caught a Marten going after my chickens, and there was a Civet around for a few weeks. The monkeys haven't been by in a while, though they will surely come once the persimmons ripen. Shimane gets more bear sightings than any other prefecture, but so far none have come into our village. The wild boar will probably raid the gardens once the sweet potatoes and pumpkins are getting fat, though we trapped and ate three of them last autumn, so maybe word has gotten round and they will leave us alone this year.