Nov 25, 2014

Walking through the rice paddies

 I was on a narrow paved road through the rice paddies. At one point I found this very smokey fire, where they seemed to be burning weeds and things they had cut from around the paddies.
Looking back in the direction from which I had come, I could clearly see the shape of the land. On the left and right there are steep sided hills. In the middle you can see a raised area and behind it some higher hills. The space between the raised area and the distant hills is the protected valley where I had spend much of the day. The two rivers exit the valley at the base of the hills on the left and right. The Takatsu Jinja in on the hill at the left and the Sakuta Jinja is nearby at the narrowest point along the river. You can see how easily the valley could have been defend in periods of warfare, making it an idea location for villages. The raised area is called Antokudai. Antoku was the name of one of the early emperors who lived in this area for at least part of his life.

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