Yamadera

 This carved rock and the statues resting on it are explained in the sign. If I remember correctly, they are quite old and were commissioned by someone I have never heard of.

 All over Asia people place stones on top of things. When they become a small pile, the form a representation of a stupa, a pagoda. Here the flat top, which appeared to have held a statue in the past, is covered with small stones.

 Here a bas-relief carving of a Buddha or maybe a Bodhisattva has been covered with a roof and walls that are somehow attached to the stone.

 This was very mysterious. The rectangular stone case surrounds a large rock that shows signs of having been worked on but which has no definite shape. There was no sign and the people in the area, including the guides with the second grade students, had no idea what it was.

 All of the greenery, statues, stelae and small buildings made this a very interesting trek. They also gave me something to examine when I stopped climbing stairs to catch my breath.

This large boulder was very soft, apparently a large piece of some sort of volcanic rock. The little shiny circles on it are one yen coins, worth about 0.8 cents US. The stone is soft so it is easy to work the coin into the surface far enough that it does not fall off. I took out my coin purse and put one coin on it, too.