Fuki-ji to Matama... chains needed

Another Japanese inn tonight. Back to sleeping on the floor.
Amazing 10 course breakfast, mini-bus, fields and farms, forests, temples, a stroll over hills and fields to another temple and a restaurant, and then a vertical climb in steady drizzle. you can pick us by the rain jackets, which by chance would say Ukraine. Not meant to be cryptic.

Started at the shrine where Anne was ringing the bell, then through a forest, down to the stream and 1200yo rock carving, then up over the ridge behind it. Steep - hence chains and tiny paths In a photo there is a tiny bridge spanning a chasm between two pinnacles. We went up to near the bridge, but not across it: it is unstable after an earthquake a few years ago. A guide was at the restaurant and would be with us for several of the next few days. He started by taking us up the very steep cliff that had chains to help (impossible without?). He bowled along quite happily in gumboots that were a size too large so his feet did not get too sweaty.
fter getting to the top, but not going on the earthquake-damaged stone bridge between peaks, and a long, slow but steep walk down to the hotel, where everyone went to the hot baths. 12,601/8.2km and 32 flightsRead more