As we approached the high hills, a smaller hill suddenly blocked our view. It was quite picturesque with bamboo groves at the bottom and grove of cedar reaching to the top.
Once past that hill, we could see the temple again. In addition to visiting the temple, it appeared that, when we arrived at the top, we would have a fantastic view of Matsushima bay and all the small islands.
Below the temple and on a hillock in the flat farm land, we saw a graveyard. We thought that it must be associated with the temple, but when we actually reached the temple, we found the temple's graveyard, so we had no idea who took care of this one.
As you can see from this view which was taken a little farther up the road, this graveyard is quite extensive and was obviously well tended.
After passing the graveyard, the road climbed a short hill and at the top we found the access road for the temple. The large white and green sign was bilingual (Japanese and English) and was about tourist attractions in the area. The temple was shown on it but there was nothing else about it. The small white sign with the red arrow showed the way to our temple and the brown sign indicated the direction to another temple 14 kilometers away. We turned off the main road and started up the paved side road. It was a winding road with a few fairly steep places, but all in all it was a pleasant walk through the woods.
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