Once passed the "Don't walk your dog" sign, I entered the actual temple grounds. They are extremely large by Japanese standards, because they include the entire bowl-shaped valley.
This is the stele that marks the entrance to the temple. You can see it on the left in the previous picture.
Off to my right was a large parking lot. On the hillside there a large statue of Kannon (?) and a row of some kind of stone markers. At this point I guessed that they might be old grave stones. However, I did not get up close to them until I was leaving the grounds so I will wait until then to discuss them. I circled the grounds in a clockwise direction and on leaving crossed the parking lot to get back to the entrance road.
The highest ridge line in the previous picture continued to the right and revealed a row of grave stones. It appeared that there was a large graveyard hidden on the other side of the hill.
However, I decided not to investigate at the moment because there were even more interesting things on right. So I followed the road a little further until I reached a point where I could leave the paved road and walk across a grassy field.
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