Nokogiriyama (Chiba)
October 2007
Together with Mae Rose (Tobi went to a conference in France) and Nii-san, a lab-matye of Mae Rose, I went to Nokogiriyama. I had been there with Tobi and Mae Rose before, but Nii-san wanted to go there and we thought it would be ok to go once more as we missed some parts last year.
This is what happened with our 3x600yen entrance fee from last year. At that time, there was only a flat, empty patch of ground, but now some religious building had been erected! We almost got curious what they will do with this year's entrance fees...
Next to the Daibutsu (huge buddha statue), there was this place, where people put small dolls (bought at the shop next to it) on the huge heap already formed. After putting their dolls in front of the tiny shrine and doing a quick prayer or so, this couple took quite a lot of time to get the perfect picture using their cellphones :-)
The path leading up the mountain contains a lot of statues, some in groups, some alone, and about half of them decapitated (with the head broken off).
Here another unfortunate example, obviously annoying his friends...
We started to wonder why so many missed their heads. Was it coincidence? For some the reinfocing iron wire still stuck out of the neck... Did this have a deeper, spiritual meaning? Here it really got weird... A whole row of beheaded statues! But then it became clear, reading the signboard above the tunnel. Although it just sais "watch out" in Japanese, the English warning is very clarifying: "Watch your head".
The saw-tooth
Huge Kanon carving
This time we decided to make the hike a little bit longer and walk a bit further north along the mountain, which proved very worthwile. Now we could really see the enormous vertically carved wall.
And some overhang, caves etc.
And enjoy a nice view from the next, even higher mountain.
This is what happened with our 3x600yen entrance fee from last year. At that time, there was only a flat, empty patch of ground, but now some religious building had been erected! We almost got curious what they will do with this year's entrance fees...
Next to the Daibutsu (huge buddha statue), there was this place, where people put small dolls (bought at the shop next to it) on the huge heap already formed. After putting their dolls in front of the tiny shrine and doing a quick prayer or so, this couple took quite a lot of time to get the perfect picture using their cellphones :-)
The path leading up the mountain contains a lot of statues, some in groups, some alone, and about half of them decapitated (with the head broken off).
Here another unfortunate example, obviously annoying his friends...
We started to wonder why so many missed their heads. Was it coincidence? For some the reinfocing iron wire still stuck out of the neck... Did this have a deeper, spiritual meaning? Here it really got weird... A whole row of beheaded statues! But then it became clear, reading the signboard above the tunnel. Although it just sais "watch out" in Japanese, the English warning is very clarifying: "Watch your head".
The saw-tooth
Huge Kanon carving
This time we decided to make the hike a little bit longer and walk a bit further north along the mountain, which proved very worthwile. Now we could really see the enormous vertically carved wall.
And some overhang, caves etc.
And enjoy a nice view from the next, even higher mountain.