I am listening to the music in my iPod at 4:00 a.m. It is totally dark outside. At home the morning paper must already have been delivered by a nice uni student of first grade in the job early every morning.

No sound of rain, as a matter of fact. I could have seen the sky full of stars. I wonder why I did not get up.
Switched on the TV at 5:30 and began watching "Good morning" program. Still dark outside.
Opened the curtain of the window and some vague outline appeared in the image covered with slight snow on top.
But that doesn't mean I recreated the real view through my eyes because of my poor ability. Look at the picture half of my regret.

I decided to soak in the hot spring bath.
The bath house is in the annex connected by the tasteful corridor.
As I made it sure last night, I could take pictures this morning.

I happened to stay in Kajiya Inn because it is near the ropeway to Mt. Nokogiri.
More than that it gave me an unexpected merit.
Though my stay was only from the previous evening to the morning, the inn impressed me deeply. I leave my feeling in the last 4th chapter.

Mt. Nokogiri & Nihonji Temple

Our couple arrived at the ropeway station in 5 minutes from Kajiya Inn.

Got on the 9:30 cable-car and reached the top after 4 minutes.

The west gate to Nihonji Temple was down the stone steps for a few minutes.
The top of Mt. Nokogiri seems to be a plateau with each gate at north, south, east and west into the precincts of about 330 thousand square meters of Nihonji Temple.

To state my conclusion first, a network complex of the approaches to the temple consisted of 2,639 granite-stone steps and natural steep slopes, which made me dead tired.

- - - - - -
After continuous upper slopes of stone steps for 20 minutes, the big sculpture of Hundred-shaku Kannon appeared. It is about 30 meters high and one of the highlights in the precincts of Nihonji Temple.

This kannon sculpture was carved on the rock face of the quarry for 6 years and completed in 1966. Its height is hyaku-shaku (a hundred-shaku), that is about 30 meters.
It was made for the repose of the victims during the 2nd World War and the world peace. It is now a guardian angel of traffic safety.

It was really worth watching. The picture right was taken by my wife. What a contrast! Doesn't a nice guy look as tiny as an ant?

Mt. Nokogiri ( Mt. Saw) was named as such, because the rock faces after quarrying stones looked like sharp saws. There were several remains of such works.
This quarrying work is said to have started in the latter half of Edo period (1603-1868) and the stone material is tuff sand stone. The stones were processed to stone lanterns, charcoal stoves, gravestones, stone Buddhas, etc. and delivered to Edo or Tokyo (after Meiji period).
It had to be ended by the spread of cement at the beginning of Showa period.

The top of Mt. Nokogiri (329 meters high) was after 10-minute walk from Hundred-shaku Kannon.
Mt. Nokogiri is so low that the name "mountain" sounded a little odd to me before the trip.
Even very low, to the contrary, it made me feel something never easy only during walking for 10 minutes from Hundred-shaku Kannon. What if I had not made use of the 4-minute ropeway from the foot?
10 minute-walking from Hundred-shaku Kannon was only the first step. The mountain was going to give me its cruelty as much as possible while walking around Nihonji Temple.

I found a well-done explanation on Mt. Nokogiri in the English Wikipedia as follows.

I decided to explain what I saw in Nihonji Temple in the next chapter, as it may become a little too long here. The title will be "Kenkon-zan Nihonji Temple". You will see why its first name is "Kenkon-zan" later.

- - - -
After 4 hours in the huge precincts of Nihonji Temple, we got down to the foot in ropeway
Walking along the beach to Hamakanaya Station, we were looking around for some restaurant. Both Emiko and I would like to eat some other lunch than seafood, remembering the yesterday's big lunch at Banya.

"Ramen or something light....."
A ramen store appeared on the coast side, as guessed Emiko's wish.
An old small lady of our age with her back bent was managing the store.
She talked to us friendly.
"I have been helping my husband of a fisherman since we were married 40 years ago."
"We always get up before dawn around 3 o'clock and take breakfast. Then my husband goes to the sea. I do miscellaneous works related to the fishing and the store, and do farmwork. Those works finished, I go shopping at the market. Before lunch, I open my ramen store. When my husband returns from the sea, I help him take his game of the day to the market. ...."

I ordered a seafood ramen in the result of being interested in her story. The noodle soup with a number of seafood her husband caught went to my stomach without my noticing.

Her story also made me recall my childhood.
My father Shigezo was an owner of the pearl-divers' boat since he stopped a pearl diver on the Arafura Sea near Australia at the age of 33 after 17-year service. But he did not continue a fisherman, while he enjoyed his hobby of rowing his small boat and catching fishes and marine life. My mother Kumano delivered such marine products to neighbors and relatives.
My parents mainly managed a grocery and liquor store. Their another work was to cultivate the wheat field on the hill. We 3 children helped them getting their flattery.
- - - -

The old lady drew us into her heart-warming story with Boso dialect. It was already 15:00. That meant we stayed here as long as 1 hour and a half. We left the ramen shop, while the lady was reluctant to part from us.

The local train from Hamakanaya Station at 16:00 ran slowly on the Uchibo Line until Soga Station.

Changed to Keiyo Line for Shin-Urayasu Station where we arrived before 19:00, spending nearly 3 hours in train totally.
I will devote myself to the travel essay this time from tomorrow, starting with the arrangement of a lot of pictures.

Pictures on Mt. Nokogiri, October 16, 2014