Yamadera

 This hole in the rock face (above the greenest leaves) was apparently a place for meditation. Throughout Japan many temples have such holes where a monk could go and meditate for long periods, often days, without having to contact other humans.

 This stone lamp post seems to be wearing a stone straw hat.

 This is a tree trunk that is completely covered with pieces of bamboo, apparently for protection against the snow which is very deep here every winter.

 This is the view down through the branches to the next level. If you look carefully, you can see at least three or four people.

 Here the stairs narrowed to not much more than the width of two shoes as the path passed between to large boulders.

This is a second trail that comes down from somewhere above. The next time I visit Yamadera I will follow this path just to see where it goes.

Yamadera

 When not climbing long flights of stairs, the walk was very pleasant.

 This large boulder has been hollowed out and behind the door there is a small wooden building containing a statue.

 This building was old and in need of some repairs. There was a meditation room and altar off to the left but a bunch of noisy people, including one man who was talking with this office about work in a very load voice, arrived so we left before they broke the mood.

 Starting back down the mountain, we could see across the valley.

 As we went down each level, the mountains on the other side of the valley seemed to grow taller.

One of the administrative buildings had this huge set of pray beads. You were supposed to grasp the beads with one hand and pull down on them while reciting some sort of short group of words. Each bead was almost as big as my fist.

Yamadera

 This stele had a bas-relief portrait of an actual person. It was placed here by the family to celebrate the life of a man who had been in the war between Japan and Russia just over a hundred years ago.

 This is another temple and it looked very old.

 This is a statue of an elephant. You can see it in the top right corner of the previous picture. Having an elephant here is very unusual, ordinarily there are lions, but I have no idea what the significance of it might be.

 I found another unusual feature when I looked inside at the altar. The main object was a large mirror. I can understand the symbolism of looking at a reflection of yourself, but mirrors are usually found in Shinto shrines where the represent the reflection of the light from the sun god.

This building is a storehouse for valuable items. Notice the symbol up under the eaves. It looks like something you might find in Nazi Germany, but actually this is a 2,500 year old Buddhist symbol.

Yamadera

 A group of stelae on a raised platform with a short flight of stairs.

 We walked by another stone cliff and found that it was also covered with many one and five yen coins. One interesting thing about one yen coins is that they are made from aluminum and are so light that you can easily blow them off your hand.

 The main temple buildings with stairs going up both sides.

 On the opposite side from the one we took there was a bell tower.

 At this level there was a roofed incense burner.

This large rock had a small pagoda carved out of it and some stelae in front to mark the site.

Yamadera

 This little building seem to be a meditation hall.

 Going down one level, there was a good view of the buildings above. I think this is the residence for the priests who live in the temple. Some of the flat areas near the top had vegetable gardens in them, eliminating the necessity of carry fresh vegetables up the mountain side.

 On the way down, one of the buildings had an newly opened door that gave me a good view of the altar. If you were able to be here early in the morning, I think that you would be able to join the priests in chanting sutras.

 This little guy sat in front of the altar, outside but behind the rope for the bell. The sign said that rubbing the statue at the appropriate place would cure physical problems, especially those accompanying old age. My wife and I both rubbed it all over.

 This was an amazing site. We were still near the top of the mountain and in lower levels of the main temple complex when we found a mail box.

The sign on the box indicates that the mail is picked up once every day. The kanji on the box read yubin or mail and the T-shape with the extra horizontal line is the symbol that is always prominently displayed on mailboxes and post offices.

Yamadera

 This is the meditation hall that is not open to the public. The main temple building is to the left. This picture was taken from the last building in the complex, the one that was most obvious on the left side of the pictures taken from the train station.

 This last building is actually a roofed viewing platform with a splended view out over the valley. The train station is just below the large white buildings in the center.

 Behind this building there is a little altar. The path apparently leads up to the highest peak and we were told that there are meditation places up there as well as meditation paths (physically difficult so that you have to become completely in the moment in order not to get hurt). This path is now closed, apparently due to earthquake damage.

 Opposite the above altar was a cave with a very small roofed altar inside on the left.

 We left the observation platform and headed back toward the main temple and then started back down the hill.

This was the strangest sight we encountered. This man is delivering the takubin (a parcel post delivery service like UPS). He has a frame backpack and carried these boxes up from the bottom of the hill. He was huffing and puffing and leaving a trail of sweat behind him. In the city of Nagasaki (of A-bomb fame), a large section of the city is built on the side of a steep hill and there are basically no roads. Everything must be delivered by people hand carrying it up the steep paths. I visit there once and saw a large refrigerator being manhandle up the side of the mountain. Incredible sight.

Yamadera

 I thought this was very interesting. The part of the structure on the left is old and made from wood but on the right it is new and has aluminum sashes.

 This little altar is out on a rock hanging over the valley.

 It was closed and the stairs were roped off so I could not see inside.

 If you look carefully in the middle of the picture, you can see the roof of a mediation hall. Apparently it is not open to the public and the path to it is closed.

 The upper building is the main temple. The building with the red roof is some sort of administrative building or a meeting place or a meditation hall.

The red altar building is directly behind this building, which was also closed.

Yamadera

 This is a lion protecting the temple or maybe the gate I showed yesterday. In any case it is over your head as you start through the gate.

 This gate is a bit unusual as behind the warrior king there is another small room contain what appear to be judges who determine your qualifications to enter.

 Inside the gate there was a small building containing a Buddha and some stelae.

 Because the path is going up the side of a steep mountain, in many place there is a good view back down the slope.

 We were now on the a flat place one level below the highest point. Off to our left we could see three buildings. But before going over to explore them, we decided to look around the flat area we were in.

In front of a little office building, where you could get things stamped to prove you had been here or you could buy trinkets and souvenirs, a little statue stood holding smaller statues. This was only about a foot tall. It represents someone from olden Japan, before the year 1000 probably. The double loops of hair and the clothes tells the age.

Yamadera

 Just beyond the one yen coins, I found a group of stelae on the ground and more bas-relief stelae on the face of the rock cliff.

 Walking back the way I came, I took another picture of of the one yen coins. It was only with this picture that I noticed how many were in straight horizontal lines. These coins were on the lines of the bas-relief stelae. At the time, I did not pay much attention to the wooden slats piled at the bottom of the cliff. However, now that I look at them, I see that they have some kind of round wheel embedded near the ends and they are covered with writing. The next time I go I will have to check these out carefully.

 Stepping back to the flat area near the stairs, I could see that a curved shape had been cut out of the stone. You can see the edges on the right and another on the left. According to the sign in the bottom left, this is the outline of Daruma, a Buddhist priest who sat mediating for so long that his legs fell off.

 Here is a picture of the rock face from a distance. It is not very much of a likeness of Daruma but once you know that it supposed to be him, you can see the shape.

 Another long flight of stairs and we could see a temple gate. The pillar-like objects on each side of the entrance hold statues of warrior kings who protect the temple from evil.

The space for the kings was covered with a wooden grill and this was the best picture that I could get. The object on the left is a large replica of a straw sandal. It serves as a good luck token for pilgrims who come to this temple.