Oushuu33Kannon Temples 1-3 Part 9

According to our map, this building should be Temple #3. However, it is a single building standing by itself in front of a graveyard. For us to get our book stamped, there has to be a person there somewhere, but obviously there are no living quarters.
As we neared the temple, it became clear that it was unoccupied but that it was not abandoned. The graveyard on the hill appeared to be well kept. Also the moving van did not seem to be associated with the temple.
When we actually reached the temple, it was obvious that there was no one there. We went around back but there was no sign of life. The temple was definitely not abandoned but there was no one there and no sign that we should expect anyone.
Beside the building we found a stele that referred to the three worlds: kamaloka - the world of desire, rupaloka - the world of form, and arupaloka - the world of formlessness. In some sects, these are the possible destinations for rebirth. I have also seen other references to the three worlds, for example, I have seen them used to mean the past, the present and the future. In any case, the writing on the two blocks on either side of the base, give the name of the temple so we knew we were in the right place in spite of the lack of people.
After looking around a bit more and finding nothing interesting or illuminating, we decided to visit the nearest house and ask some questions. It was at least a hundred meters away and clearly not connected to the temple. We went up and knocked on the door. An old woman answered and told us that the priest only came when there was a ceremony of some sort. At first she could not remember the name of the place where the priest came from, but after a chat with her husband, she dredge up the name for the bottom of her memory. She did not, however, have any idea where this other temple was. We thanked her and left. At a complete loss, we decided to do what any sane person would do in a similar situation - we sat down on a wall and had lunch.

After we ate, we finally remembered that, when we had purchased our stamp books, we also bought small books telling about the pilgrimage. I dug my out of my pack and started looking through it. The entry for Temple #3 had a comment that stamps were available at a temple called Shinguji. There was even a map! However, Shinguji was as far north of Temple #2 as we were now south of #2. It also indicated that the place next to the river that we thought was a Shinto shrine was actual a building hold the statue of Kannon that was associated with Temple #3. It was all very confusing and we never did manage to understand everything.

Considering our options we decided to give up visiting Temple #4 on that day and to go to Shinguji and get the stamp and then head home. The first half of the trip was just a repeat of what we had done during the earlier part of the day. However, once to the north of Temple #2, we started seeing some things that were new and interesting. These three trees, for example, were like nothing we had ever seen before. It appeared that someone had trimmed the branches to get this shape and each year climbed up and cut off the new branches. Why anyone would want to do this was completely beyond our understanding.