Daisen

About three weeks ago i went on a road trip with Mika and her parents for the long weekend to Daisen to see the Autumn leaves. It was about a 4hr drive from Amagasaki and the countryside along the way was beautiful. Going away with Mika's parents is great. Always lots of nice food that i can never afford to buy myself. The first day we spent at their holiday house in Okayama because her parents wanted to play golf.

Along the way. the japanese country side is really beautiful
this time of year. Beautiful streams with bright red, yellow and orange
momoji for the backdrop.

Early saturday morning we headed to Tottori prefecture and visited Mitoku-san (mitoku mountain) to see Nageiredo at the top of the mountain. the story is that En-no-Gyoja threw three lotus flower petals and one of them landed on Mitoku-san and was a sign that it was a good place for buddha. The building is 520m above see level and is perched on a cliff. Apparently modern engineers still can't work out how it was constructed and seeing it makes you think the same. Even now it would be a difficult feat but as it was built over 1300 years ago i have no idea how it was possible. Legend has it the En-no-Gyoja ordered the it be constructed at the base of the mountain and used unexplainable power to throw the temple to it's current spot.



The climb up the mountain was pretty challenging. Mika's mother has climbed it a few times but didn't let on how difficult it was. As we entered our shoes were checked to make sure they were suitable before we were allowed to start climbing. Most of the way you had to pull yourself up the mountain using exposed tree roots and ropes and chains.

this was one of the spots that i felt comfortable
to get my camera out and take a photo. There were
quite a few signs on the way showing were people had fallen
and died.

Mika pretending to be indiana jones or as
they say over here "i'm indy jonesu"

this was one of the temples on the way up. I think there
was about four. Mika's father told her that the floor is slippery with
socks so she wouldn't let go of the building. Over the front edge of the
veranda is a cliff straight down the mountain.