Kyushu Pilgrimage Day 63 Obama to Nagasaki

Friday February 21st 2014

The sun may or may not be up as I head out of Obama and take the road north along the coast of Tachibana Bay. Looming over the town the massive Mount Unzen blocks any view of the sun until later in the morning. Looking back, plumes of steam rise from among the buildings, a signature of an onsen town. Tachibana Bay is calm and a little darker shade of blue than the sky. A thin line of even darker blue shows the far shore dividing the two expanses of blue.

After half an hour I am able to veer off the main road and take route 201 which was once a railway line. I come to a fork just outside the first fishing village. My map says to take the right fork which starts to rise. My natural inclination is to take the lower road that will hug the coast, but I defer to my map. The road climbs gently and gives a nice overview over the village below and then passes through a narrow tunnel with the distinctive horseshoe shape of a railway tunnel

Coming out of the tunnel I come upon what I presume to be a local TV station making a travel program. An older man and a younger woman are both dressed in khaki shorts and wearing pith helmets. I resist the urge to shout out “Doctor Livingstone I presume!”. With only a cameraman and a sound man as crew, I am presuming they are a low budget local TV show something along the lines of “Lets Explore Locally”, because the next section of the road is a minor tourist attraction known as the Green Tunnel. The road, formerly the railway track, passes through a narrow cutting and the trees growing above have spread their canopy over the narrow cutting thereby creating a “green tunnel”. The road curves around the mountainside passing through several more tunnels.

At several points, there are great views down onto fishing villages below and along the approaching north shore of the bay. The road starts to descend as slowly as it ascended and I end up in Chijiwa where the main road now heads west towards Nagasaki. I find a convenience store to stock up at and sit with a coffee and check my maps. I want to avoid the main road if I can. I find a coast road that literally runs between the cliffs and the sea. Perfect. There is no traffic save for the occasional k-truck. The road comes to an end at a small onsen located right on the beach. From here there is no easy way along the coast so I head inland and join up with the main road heading to Nagasaki.

The road is fairly busy and at first there is a sidewalk, but as it leaves the village the sidewalk ends but starts again at the next village. The road is windy and goes up and down, though never steeply, and because of this the view changes often. I am surprised by the number of love hotels around. It is still about 30 kilometers to Nagasaki, but it is about halfway between Nagasaki and Isahaya, so maybe they serve both populations. Its a fairly uneventful afternoon with a couple of shrine visits, but as the traffic increases closer to Nagasaki it become less enjoyable.

 

By late afternoon I have covered 30 kilometers but there is still more than 10 to go and I think maybe 40k is too much. In the summer, with the longish days, 40k is doable, but at this time of the year it is just too much so I check the timetable at the next bus stop and finding a bus imminent I decide to take it. Tomorrow I head home. This leg has seen me cover 190 kilometers, making a total of 1,710 kilometers in total.

The previous diary entry was Day 62 Over the Shimabara Peninsula.

Obama Onsen Snapshots

 

Obama Onsen is a small. coastal hot spring resort on the West coast of the Shimabara Peninsula in Nagasaki, Kyushu.

I stayed in a small. family-run ryokan with a recently renovated outdoor bath but the town also has plenty of larger hotel-style accomodation.

Known for its sunset views, it main claim to fame is having the hottest and most active hots springs in the country.

You can't go far on the Japanese coast without finding one of the spots where the ubiquitous tetrapods are made.

Typical of many seaside parks, Obama had a large, sculptural-type monument near the longest foot bath in Japan.

There was a very small fishing harbour with huge concrete walls and breakwaters

Shunyokan is a classic onsen hotel from the early Show period about 100 years ago//

Looking north, my route the next day, up Tachibana Bay

The previous post was on Obama Shrine.

Obama Shrine & its Komainu

 

Obama Shrine is the main shrine of the small, coastal hot spring resort of Obama on Tachibana Bay in Nagasaki.

The current shrine building was constructed in 1995 on the site of the former Kengara Shrine when Obama Shrine and Kengara Shrine were combined.

It seems the original Kengara Shrine was built in 1679 at the same time the nearby Obama Shrine was rebuilt. At that time both shrines had different names.

The kami enshrined here are Okuninushi, and Sukunahikona who is often portrayed as a sidekick of Okuninushi. Sukunahikona is sometimes considered a god of hot springs due to an episode in the ancient myths set at Dogo onsen in Shikoku. The other kami enshrined is Takemikazuchi.

The main building has a ceiling painting of a dragon which was transferred from the older shrine, but, for me, the most interesting thing at the shrine was the two pairs of small komainu that I suspect came from the two older shrines.

The previous post was on the longest hot spring foot bath in Japan which is nearby.

Inori no Sato Religious Roadside Attraction

 

Coming down from Unzen Hot Springs towards Obama on the coast of Tachibana Bay, the road is steep and without any settlements until just above the town.

Inori no Sato is sometimes described as a park, sometimes as a roadside rest area, but it looks like some kind of religious roadside attraction with a wide range of statues and altars, and yet is not a temple or shrine.

It is sometimes referred to as Unzen Daibutsu Inori no Sato because of the Buddha statue seen in photo 2, which was made by the same sculptor who created the Ushiku Great Buddha in Ibaraki.

That was a standing figure 120 meters tall, whereas the statue here is a seated figure only 3 meters high including the base.

There are several statues of Kannon, photos 3 & 7, and several Fudo Myo statues, photos 6 & 14.

Under a gazebo in the middle of the park is an impressive statue of a Dragon grasping a golden sphere, photo 5, with a smaller version, photo 8. This is a common symbol across East Asia. The Secven Lucky Gods, shichifukujin, also make an appearance, photo 4.

Various figures from the world of Yokai make an appearance, including a Kappa Pond, photo 9, and a giant red Tengu mask, photo 10.

No overview of Japanese popular religion would be complete without an Inari Shrine, photo 11, a small collection of monkey statues probably related to the Koshin cult, photo 13, and a statue of Shotoku Taishi, photo 12.

There seems to be an emphasis on praying for good luck, success, and other "this worldly benefits", known as genze riyaku in Japanese.

Not shown in these photos is a miniature Shikoku Pilgrimage with 88 small statues, and a pair of "sexual" statues based on Dosojin.

There is no entry fee, though offertory boxes stand in front of all of the statues, and no sect or religion is being pushed. The whole thing was funded by a local businessman, Mr Takujima.

It seems he is the chairman of a successful construction company and Inori no Sato is his attempt to contribute to the well-being and perhaps revitalization of the local area.

The previous post was on the Unzen Hells.

Manholes by Children

On some recent travels I came across a couple of towns that have their manholes designs designed by children. The first was Takamatsu in Kagawa on Shikoku.

These first three designs were all executed by high school students at a local arts & crafts High School. 2 of the designs show views of the famous Ritsurin Garden located in Takamatsu, and the middle design features Sanuki Udon, the noodle speciality of the area.

The other 2 designs come from the town of Obama on the Japan Sea coast in Fukui, and these were done by obviously much younger children.