Omiwa Shrine, Tokushima

Coming to the end of my fourth day on the Shikoku Pilgrimage, between temple 17 and 18 it began to rain so I took shelter in this large shrine.

It is believed to be a branch shrine of the famous Omiwa Shrine in Nara, though it was written with different kanji, but the main kami is Onamuchi, more commonly known as Okuninushi, the main kami of the Nara Omiwa Shrine.

It is an old shrine, being listed in the Tenth Century Engishiki, and it is also a "soja", a shrine where the local government official gathered together all the shrines of a district into one site so he didnt have to travel around to visit them annually.

Small shrines like this surrounded by water are usuallky a Suijin or Benten shrine. This one is an Enoshim-sha, the main kami of Enoshima Jinja being Benten.

The second kami enshrined here is Oyamakui, one of the kami of Hietaisha, a grandson of Susano, and known to be a kami worshipped by immigrant clans in ancient Japan. Interestingly, to me at leat, that the two main kami are both Izumo kami.

Susanoo's Unusual Komainu

Scattered across the remote mountains of Inner izumo are a series of mountain shrines to my favorite kami, Susano. Finally i was able to visit Yaeyama Shrine located on Mount Yaeyama .

I will post more on the shrine at a later date, but for now I just want to show you the rather unusual komainu.

As I wander the backroads of rural japan I am always on the lookout for diversity.... homogenity is such a sickness :). and in the "arts" of local shrines is one place where diversity can be found...

The faces of these komainu are not so unusual, but the stance and body forms are....

The author of a book I have on the komainu of izumo believe these were carved by a man in Yunotsu, but doesnt give any dates. He also believes that originally they were located inside the gate.

Incidentally, a pair of komainu at another Susano shrine, Yaegaki near Matsue, are believed to be among the oldest in japan....

Japanese Fire Engines

I recently came across this unusual draincover up near Oda City. There is a kind of primitive, folk-art aspect to it.

Up in Yasaka in the mountains south of Hamada they must have big, modern fire trucks...

As of course they do in Osaka....

At Soja in Okayama the firefighter doesnt look too happy,.... but then why would you if you were fighting a fire...

and last, no fire truck, just firefighters, in Takamatsu on Shikoku...

For more draincover firefighters with trucks click here

Falls' End

It seems to have been a short, cool, and wet autumn this year....

early this morning while driving back from a friends place upriver we stopped briefly at a riverside temple to snap some shots...

Fortunately it was clear skies...

No idea of the temple name, and when I first visited it many years ago it was non-existent but it seems a new temple has been built here....

Akiyoshidai: the biggest karst in Japan

Compared to some countries Japan does not have a great diversity of landscapes. The first place  I visited in Japan that struck me as unusual for Japan was Akiyoshidai in central Yamaguchi.

It is a karst, a limestone plateau, and is in fact the largest karst in Japan with an area of about 130 square kilometers.

Some 300 million years ago it was a large coral reef which rose above the sea and became limestone. Being soluble the limestone is easily eroded by water and has created the unusual  landscape of rolling hills with sinkholes and unusual protruding rocks. It also is home to hundreds of caves, including Akiyoshido, the largest in Japan.

Off in the distance the more usual Japanese landscape can be glimpsed.

The early Japanese eventually cut down the forest that stood over the plateau and replaced it with Susuki, Japanese Pampas Grass, which they used as fodder and thatch. To stop the forest from regrowing the plateau is burned every February.

There are numerous trails all over the plateau and it offers an unusual landscape in any season of the year.

Doors of Essouira

Here it is, almost 2013, and I'm still posting photos from my vacation to Morocco in 2011...

Day 21, the penultimate day of my vacation I was still in Essouira, still spending the time wandering around taking photos...... its such a damn photogenic country....

Just like Marrakesh, the berber villages of the jebel sahro, in fact anywhere Ive been in Morocco, Essouira had a lot of fascinating doors.....

I believe you can buy books just filled with photos of Morrocan doors.....

More Sanbe Sunrise

I couldn't resist posting some more photos from my recent night on Mount Sanbe.

The earlier posts are here and here...

Turns out this is my 999th post!!!!

Lying down in the Mountains

heading off for a few days in the mountains again so I thought I would post some pics from a recent trip sleeping out on top of a mountain to show the obvious reason why...... the views...

All these photos are from a night I spent on top of Mount Kannomine on Osakikamijima, an island in the Inland Sea

Its only 453 meters high, but getting to the top means starting at sea level so its still a good climb.

Unfortunately it was cloudy so the light was not as good as it could have been, but still there were some stunning views over the numerous islands that dot the Inland Sea between Honshu and Shikoku.

The sun set over the Aki Nada chain of islands that I had spent 2 days walking across to get here

Unfortunately it was even cloudier at dawn but still it was an awesome view across the  islands that the Shimanami Kaido now runs across from Ohnomichi to Imabari....

Misumi Power Station

Misumi Power Station, owned by Chugoku Power Company, is where we get most of our electricity from.

It can generate 1,000,000 Kilowatts by burning coal, though a certain percentage of biomass, local woodchips, are also mixed in.

I grew up in the industrial heartland of the UK, and my home was located within site of a coal mine and a gasworks, so belching smoke and grimy soot is what I associate with coal power, but Misumi Power Station is white and spotless and very hi-tech.

The coal mostly comes from Australia and the power stations own ship ferries back and forth every two weeks.

The storage silo is one of the biggest of its kind in the world and its interior volume is larger than that of Tokyo Dome.

The whole process is completely automated and there are very few workers. Free guided tours are available.