Saiki Reflections

In the early evening I was heading to my minshuku and crossed the river. The strong light and fairly calm surface produced some quite nice reflections.

That's all. No more words, just pics. The final photo is cherry blossoms.....

Saiki Castle

Saiki Castle

Saiki, on the coast of southern Oita Prefecture was a castle town in the Edo Period. Built in 1606 by Mori Takamasa, Tsuruya Castle, now known as Saiki Castle, was built on top of  Mount Hachiman.

Most of the castle burnt down in a fire just 11 years later, and was not rebuilt as Mori relocated his headquarters to the base of the mountain, where the main gate of the castle, built in 1637, is the only structure still standing.

After quite a climb up the mountain you can still see a lot of the original stonework . It was not a big castle but had a three storey keep.

It is worth the climb for the expansive views down on the town, across to Shikoku, and across the banjo River.

Kabosu Juice From Oita Prefecture

The Married Rocks of Kamiura

Meoto Iwa, literally "married rocks" are found at numerous points around the Japanese coastline. A larger rock is connected to a smaller rock by a shimenawa.

The most famous Meoto Iwa, and probably the original one, is on the coast near Ise Shrine up in Mie. This one is at Kamiura, a little fishing village, now part of Saiki City in Oita.

Like most of Japan, once you get away from the heavily industrialized and urbanized areas it really is quite pretty.

The "husband" rock is 17 meters tall, and the "wife" rock 7 meters. The shimenawa connecting them is 65 meters long and weighs 2 tons. It is replaced once a year.

Tsukumi to Saiki, Day 16 on my walk around the Kyushu Pilgrimage

21st of March, 2013, the 16th day of my walk around Kyushu was a glorious day. Most of the day was along the coast with no big towns.

During the day I past dozens of small shrines to Ebisu,... not surprising with his association with fishing. Not sure what this shrine was on one of the small offshore islets.

Cherry blossom season was in full swing and there were many trees along the road, but I am more impressed with the mountainsides of Yamazakura.......

At Kamiura I stopped to photograph the meoto iwa..... the "married rocks". The most famous ones are up near Ise in Mie I believe but I've come across lots of others like here....

From the Saiki castle ruins there was a great view across the channel to Shikoku.....