Ian and I passed into a slightly built up area - six or seven houses in a group around a T-intersection. I noticed an interesting fire hydrant and stopped to take the following picture of it. While I was setting the camera and framing the picture, some cars pulled up and stopped. It was obvious that it was a group returning from a funeral. The group that got out of the cars seemed to be a family and a Buddhist priest. They all looked at us, because there are very, very few foreigners in this area, and of course, I was acting strange - photographing a fire hydrant. A youngish woman asked us who we were and where we had come from. We explained that we were doing the pilgrimage and that we were from Sendai. She said that they had come from a funeral and that they were waiting for a couple more cars before they entered one of the houses for a ceremony of some kind to be followed by food and drink. The conversation continued and became lighter and lighter. Soon she was smiling and joking with us. We must have talked for almost 10 minutes when finally a last car showed up and the others in the group started calling to her to join them. She reluctantly did and we started walking again.
After passing the few remaining houses in the little village, we were again on an empty country road. The trees along the road were beautiful. I will let them speak for themselves in the following pictures.
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