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.