Yamadera

 Another narrow place in the path, This one is marked with a stone latern.

 This is an incense burner. Again someone has left slats with names written on them as requests for favors. Although it is not part of the ultimate levels of Buddhism, many lay members make wishes at the altars and other special places.

 Back down the mountain we turned right and walk along a path that we had not been on earlier. There were workmen taking a break in the shade of the gate. You can see them on the left of the pillars. They told us that this work was just normal periodic repairs and had nothing to do with the tremors.

 Inside the gate I found this rather nice statue, probably of a Bodhisattva. By the way a Bodhisattva is someone who has almost reach enlightenment but who stays connected with society in order to assist others toward that goal.

 Passed the statue, we found another temple. This one had a very interesting bell tower(?) outside. It was the smallest temple bell that I have ever seen.

Here is the same entrance from the other side.

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.