We were thinking of going to Kyoto for the fall colors, but a friend recommended we check out the Izu peninsula instead. It’s located about an hour southwest of Tokyo by train, and is effectively straight south from Mt. Fuji. It’s a traditional area known for it’s hot springs and relaxing onsen towns. We were not disappointed. Also, I took many pictures of Fuji so, apologies up front!
The region is known for its natural hot springs, called Onsen, which are caused by the hot waters from Mt Fuji’s underlying volcanic troughs that bring mineral rich water to the surface which has natural restorative properties enjoyed by peoples all over the pacific rim as well as nordic nations and others with heavy volcanic activity. We were staying at a place that had a direct line to one of these springs, and it was lovely.
One of the things we did was just sit on the balcony and admire the view. I’ve got some great shots I’ll post towards the end of this, but I did manage a couple shots of falcons roaming the skies in search of what I can only assume are little lost pets. Given the heavily wooded areas that surrounded Shuzenji, I wouldn’t put aside the fact that they probably had quite a few good meals!
More terrestrially, walking the grounds of our hotel we discovered that you had to be pretty spot-on the center of the walkways or you’d engage in a little tĂªte-Ă -tĂªte with an arachnid, who if we’re being honest could easily win in a straight up match. 8 arms and a 36-inch vertical are nothing to sneeze at, but I did manage a few shots of them at work spinning their webs. Luckily the birds snatched up all the small dogs, so there weren’t any fido-sized mummies stuck in mid air (at least, not that I could see…).
Each day we would venture down from the hills into the town of Shuzenji proper. This town has a bit of history I’ll quote here from wikipedia – “The hot springs have been used for over fourteen centuries for their therapeutic properties. Folklore tales describe the discovery and founding of the hot springs by Kobo Daishi (774-835), a Buddhist monk who probed at the rocks in the river with his walking stick (tokko) releasing the hot spring water. The historical town that was built up around the geothermal system was called Shuzenji.”
The late Autumn sun was always making such wonderful light on the rivers as they’d come to a small head in the shallow parts and make small rapids, causing gleaming sunlight to dance across the surface. Our walks frequently took far longer than planned because of the very slow going. But, if you’re going to lug a DSLR along on a trip, you’d better well make good use of it!
Occasionally we’d spot an egret standing in the waters. This was not one of those times, but you can use your imagination, haha. The light coming through the trees was marvelous. You can almost hear this picture!
This is the name Shuzenji in the Kanji. It means something like Temple of Restoring Virtue or Cultivating Goodness or Kindness, something like that. Probably named from the hot spring waters found here. This was grown in the side of a hill along the main river leading from the onsen area. Those little diamonds in the rock below the sign are about 18″ on a side, so the sign is quite large!
Walking along, this town has kind of a classic “old-time” Japanese feel, with buildings built right up to the street and then they are open behind towards the woods or the river (depending on the side of the street), but it’s clear that these thoroughfares were built before cars were the preferred method of transportation.
I’m not sure what this plant is but I thought this was a cool picture.
This is am 1853 woodcut (traditional Japanese ukiyo-e) called The Hot Springs of Shuzen Temple, by Utagawa Hiroshige. Ukoyo-e was a very famous style of art where businessmen could bring home prints of places they’ve traveled through to their loved ones. This scene is not exactly how it looks today from the perspective of the buildings, but the river and it’s rock features are still there. In the center of the image is the famous hot spring the town was centered around, though it is closed today. Interestingly, Shuzen Temple is not featured in the woodcut.
Here’s an image I took. The red bridge is the second arched bridge in the picture above, and you can see the rock outcropping underneath the bridge that houses the famous hot spring. I’m taking the picture from the closer of the two bridges. You can still see the stone walls around the river from the 1853 print.
Speaking of red bridges, there were many of them that we found walking through the town. I’m not sure how often they are repainted, but they all happen to look brand new! Some of them had wooden features or wood-like textures, but had been remade as concrete structures to better weather the tides of time (I’m not sure if I’m supposed to say that or not!)
Along the way, we encountered a bamboo forest. It wasn’t really a large area but was very pretty. You can see there were some sort of designed structures hanging from the trees to break up the vertical lines, and the bamboo grew up high enough to hit the wind which made a delightful sound as it would sway with the breeze.
Here are some more bridges. The text on the bridge at right says “As for the maple [tree or leaf]…” unfortunately, I don’t think I took a picture of the other half of the poem! Let me consult the archives…ok, the other half of the bridge has it’s contruction date, which was March 7, 1865. I think this is called “The Maple Bridge” then. Japanese will frequently leave out the subject of a sentance if it’s implied, which makes for a fair bit of guess work to figure out what you’re actually talking about at times…
Some more shots walking through the city. You can see the classic nature of the city as the sun is setting, mountains in the background, and the bones of the gas lantern system before power was available; simultaneously, the advent of power and the “add on” nature of attempting to rewire a city that’s already hundreds of years old for modern convenience, doesn’t always perhaps play out like you’d want it to, but does have a bit of its own charm. The temple in the lower left image is the actual Shuzen-Ji (Ji meaning ‘temple’ here). A beautiful place which, like many other temples in Japan, is still in use to this day for its intended purpose.
Some detail shots around the temple. The leaves had just started to turn colors (this is in late November), which made for some beautiful scenery. The details present throughout the temple grounds were pretty amazing, and I did my best to capture the highlights without going too far into the nitty gritty. Hopefully you get a sense of care that was put into crafting this area.
More of the same. The roof tiles are all hand made. The trees, while natural, are often shaped to reflect the “idealized” form and can take hundreds of years to grow.
The image in the lower left are cards that are purchased from the temple office on the grounds and are “good luck” charms that people write their wishes on and then tack to the main board. They are displayed for some time until removed and burned by temple staff. Each charm costs a nominal fee but goes to the upkeep and general maintenance of the grounds.
Other examples of the charm of this small town, and you’ll note the cars are on the left side, similar to England, Australia, New Zealand…most island nations. The text in the left image on the street says “STOP”. The 30 in the right image is the speedlimit. 30 KPH, roughly 18 MPH. You can sense the sun beginning to set with the lights coming on and the golden colors towards the top. Note also the very narrow streets…
I’m pretty sure these signs are universal. At some point in Japanese history, instead of using the green color, they used blue. In fact, the word for blue can also mean green, though there’s a specific word that means green…Japanese is a fun language to learn, but can be quite challenging at times!
Here’s a shot we took off in the distance along the road. The texture of the bamboo next to the leaves as they change colors is pretty cool. As you can imagine, it made a wonderful sound as the wind moved through the branches.
As promised, more shots of Mt Fuji. It was frequently covered in clouds, so when it was clear I ran to get my camera and snap snap snap! You’ll note there’s no snow on it yet, which in late November is…not great, but (spoiler), that does change by the end of our trip đŸ˜€
Fuji…but with a falcon in the picture!
Here are some more shots around town. We are walking down one of the main roads just to kind of see what we see. The town is kind of “packed in” around the road with space beyond that used as either farm land or just natural spaces. You can see the little car in the bottom right picture. The yellow license plate indicates it has a tiny motor so is taxed much less than the white plate cars.
On one side of the road was the river. This is different from the river that the main part of the village was on with the natural hot springs and the famous spa area. This is a little ways from that kind of off in the country, but it was really pretty to walk along. We had somewhat of an “incident” trying to find a place to eat, as the one place we found was rented out for a private event. That is somewhat common in Japan – a small restaurant will be completely booked to support a party for a few hours and will close to other guests. We just kept on walking and eventually found another place. But first, we found a waterfall and a temple hidden away in the woods.
Along the road we found this marker. I am not sure what it’s for, if I had to guess it’s where someone died in a car accident or something like that. But it could just be a small shrine the locals keep running because of a tradition. As you can see even though it was pretty late in the year, there were plenty of flowers to be found, and lots of green leaves that made a fantastic sound as they blew in the wind!
As we went up into the moutains, we found this old temple. We walked around it just a little bit and it seems like it was actively used by members of the community. There was a small graveyard behind it where some graves or shrines were. There were multiple signs around that said something like “don’t play here kids!” haha! Walking around to the far side of the temple we saw a waterfall called Asahi Falls.
It was very pretty! The hike up was quite lovely as well and we had a chance to stop and just listen to the sound of the water and the trees.
There were more grave markers or little shrines along the path, and some of them had money piled up in front. Not a lot of money, but you know we left it where it lie! There were also small bottles of sake (Japanese rice wine) and little cups in front of the graves. Erika found a bridge and decided it was a fun spot to take a picture. The old lanters were not lit, but they are make from stone and really picturesque. And we did get a chance to watch the sun setting through the bamboo grove nearby the falls and the temple. We went for a small walk around the bamboo but the road went up into the mountains fairly quickly so we decided to go another direction.
Here’s a few landscape shots as we continue along the road. You can see the tall mountains in the background that kind of isolate the village from the rest of the area, and cause the sun to “set” very early. But, it makes for a pretty walk!
We ended up walking through some fields growing crops–including a cabbage patch! There was a cool scene with a home-made scarecrow made from plastic bottles cut in half lengthwise, but I didn’t get any shots of it on my DSLR. Oh well!
More landscape shots. Playing around with filters but you can get the idea. The golden sunset colors between the hills on the upper left was absoluteley breathtaking. You can see why someone would want to live out here.
Getting back from our travels, we took the bus to the train station. The station is situated in the center of town and seems like it was the hub of all activities. The town was laid out in all directions from the station. As you can see trains arrived and departed roughly every 20-30 minutes, and you can also see that the station is the end of the line, nothing further runs south. We had to take the bus up to the mountain we were staying in from the train station, so we spent a lot of time sitting on the benches here people watching.
We got back and Mt. Fuji was on display! Such a lovely view.
If you look closely there’s a bird in this picture. It’s just a small silhouette against the layered blues of the mountains, almost hidden in the scene. Even amongst a still background there can be movement, but I guess sometimes you have to stop and take the time to look.
Aboslutely stunning sunset colors. You can see why there’s so many paintings of this mountain over the centuries. We ended up turning in quite early and waking up to a surprise the next morning…
There was snow on the mountain! First snow of the year. A little late, but better than never. The cloud deck as it decended made the mountain look like it was floating. Fuji-san isn’t a very tall volcano, but it’s prominence, or the distance between the surrounding land and it’s peak, is quite high relative to other mountains.
The clouds are looking pretty amazing here. Thanks for reading, until next time.