Day nine, still in 天橋立

Spent the day on a mountain. I did not clime it just because it was there, but rather to see Nariaiji Temple and surrounding area. 2 km of flat walking and then at least 2 km that seemed straight up. Got a good workout this morning. The founding date of the temple is unknown, but it already was active in the year 704 for imperial family prayer. where written history fails, legend fills the gap. It is said that a Buddhist monk in training was dying from starvation after snow cut off traffic between his location and the village below. He prayed to Kannon for food to survive the day. Half conscious, he saw an injured deer in the temple building, and despite the band on eating meat, sliced a part of the deer‘s thigh, cooked, and ate it. The next day, the snow melted, and the villagers found him next to statue of Kannon, the thigh of which had been sliced. The villagers found wooden chips in his cooking pan. Given the villagers report, the monk concluded that Kannon had sacrificed himself to save the monk. Since then, the temple was called Naraiji from the word “naraiau” to be fulfilled.

There’s another legend, and indeed, hopefully this is only a legend. A short distance from the temple stands a building housing the “Un-rung Bell”. As the story is told, an affluent young woman refused to join in donating for a new bell for the temple. She nonetheless attended the casting of the new bell, while holding an infant. She dropped the child into the melted copper. It cooled and hardened, and was said to produce the sound of a crying child. From then on, no one rang the bell so that the child’s spirit could remain at rest.

There were wonderful viewpoints overlooking the town and the bay from the top. Some shots of those are included. I took a different path down along a small trail. By chance, the trail led me to a place that I had explored the first night here. Tonight is probably a simple dinner, and then I am going to try to connect with my Japanese class. If successful, I will give them a short description of activities north on the sea of Japan.

Wow, almost forgot something important, finding lizards. But not just lizards, a turtle, and a snake. Nancy will have no trouble seeing them.Les mer