Hills and Tashibu

A traditional Japanese 12,000 course breakfast plus coffee, then a minibus to the starting point, from whence we climbed Cloud Mountain (645m). That meant passing lots of Buddhist statues and Shinto shrines, as we did almost every day. The area was once the leading religious centre for Japan, and monks prayed, studied,walked and taught here, then back in other parts of Korea and Japan. It was also the time when religion became intertwined with secular rituals, so the Shinto / Buddhist shrines / temples were almost side-by-side. Lots of forests, too. We ended up at Usa Jingu (a huge complex that was once perhaps the most important shrine in Japan), lunch in a restaurant, then a mini-bus to another ryokan.. perhaps the best of the lot. It was next to Japan's oldest wooden temple, and the monk and his mother ran the hotel and cooked like Michelin starred chefs. there was also meditation in the temple at 7am the next morning....19,529/13.5km and 75 flights.Read more