Day 16 -

The doors to the main hall were open so I was able to see inside. I would have liked to have gone inside to chant the sutra, but although the doors were open, the way inside was blocked. Maybe if we had been there at around dawn or dusk, the local priests would have conducted a service. In any case the interior was very impressive and it was nice to stand looking at it while we chanted.
Having finished our ritual, we headed back toward the stairs and had another view of the small building. I had the impression that it may have been older than the other buildings, but we were unable to find out during our limited stay on the grounds.
At the top of the stairs we again stopped to admine the statue of Kobo Daishi. Notice the motorbike in the background. On the back the yellow box contains dirty towels. I assume that some laundry was making a pick up at the temple, or the worker just stop to make offerings.

On the way up the stairs we had looked straight ahead and to our left because that was where the buildings and statues seemed to be. As we started down, we realized that off the other side was a really impressive statue of a guardian king of the type that is usually on each side of the main gate. Once back down on the administrative level, we discovered a very nice gate that appeared to be the entrance into the priests' quarters.
We walked back down the hill to the gift shop and had more coffee and bought some trinkets to use as presents after we got home. While we sat drinking our coffee, we noticed a sign advertising a taxi company. Since the way down was exactly the same as the way up, we decided to take a cab back to our lodging where we had left our bags. It was an incredible ride - like that street in San Fransisco but it want on and on and on and ....