Dou'unji - Cave Cloud Temple 15

First, I need to say that it is now Friday morning and I have a busy day scheduled. My wife and I have our semi-annual physical checkups scheduled for this morning. These will probably take about an hour and a half. After that we can finally have breakfast (I am really hungry at the moment) and will then do a little shopping. Our doctor's office is about 6 kilometers from my condo, so travel time will be around two hours total -walking and bus. Then we will go into downtown Sendai where I will buy train tickets for Osaka. Early tomorrow morning I will take the Shinkansen to Osaka, a 5+ hour trip. I am going to be a plenary speaker at a conference on Sunday. My title is "Just because all the students are learning doesn't mean that you are teaching". There will be a pre-conference dinner on Saturday evening and a post-conference dinner on Sunday night. I will return to Sendai on Monday. Therefore, the next post on this blog will not be until late Monday night or Tuesday morning before I leave for class.

Returning to the Dou'unji Temple, the following picture is the bell tower with the main hall behind it.
The next picture shows the bell and the log that is used to ring it. This is the typical way that bells are rung. The log is hung from the ceiling on two ropes so that it can easily swing back and forth horizontally. The bell ringer swings the log to and fro a couple of times and then releases it so that it hits the bell. When the bell is rung, the momentum transferred from the log causes it swing, sometimes quite a bit. If the bell is to be rung more than once, you have to be careful of the timing. Unless the bell is hit as it is moving toward the log, the sound can be muffled and hardly worth the effort.
This is another view of the arched bridge and the priest's quarters.
I found this beside the bell tower and I am not sure exactly what it is. I think it is a private graveyard. Of course, bodies are cremated here so there are no bodies but the stones seem to have family names carved on them.