Still at the shrine

 The road that goes up and then down the slope will be under water in a couple of years. The red and white tower-like structure on the right is in the concrete processes plant that I showed before.

 The ground around the shrine buildings was covered with small rounded stones, probably taken from a river or beach. The shoe in the upper right corner gives a good idea of the size of the stones.

This wooden structure covers a stone structure with stone doors. The doors were closed so we could not seen what was inside. I would expect that, if I opened the doors, I would find a mirror or a small statue.

Beating a dead stele

 The writing that used to be inside the rectangle has worn off so I have not idea exactly what this is. However, the top is worn in a very strange way. It does not appear to be simply from the weather.

 I was wondering about this as I turned around and found this behind me. From the condition of these poles, it was obvious that they were what had caused the damage to the top of the stele. Apparently there is some rite here where the person uses one of these poles to beat the stele. When I turned back to study the stele again, I could see that there was also damage to the sides. The guide that I asked did not know what rite this was but said that they would try to find out.

This is the view along the fronts of the buildings.

The shrine

 On the way home, we stopped at the shrine that have been moved from the valley to the hill to avoid the flooding. Most of it was completely new.

 I don't know whether they moved this rock, too, or if the engraving was already on it, but I do know that the gold paint is new.

These are grave stones. In Japan people are cremated so there is no body in a grave. The memorial is said to hold the spirits of the family members who are enshrined there. Again this is new or at least the paint in the engravings is new.

The trail

 The trail is almost invisible and is hardly ever used except by people looking at the old marker stones. The guides told us that they had come here the day before and cleared out the part of the trail that we would be using.

 However, someone has done some work here in the past. This tree stump was covered with little vives.

There was another stone that appeared to be a marker but there was no trace of any carved words or symbols so we were not sure.