Heading Towards Yamadera

On Monday we managed to cross another thing off my 'To do before leaving Japan' list, and finally made a visit to Yamadera. It's a temple on the side of mountain, and more information about it in my next post, but first, the hike we did to get there. 

You can get the train straight from Sendai, via our house, to Yamadera, but if you get off one stop earlier, at Omoshiroyamakogen, you can hike the remaining 8km. The first half is along a river, secluded and gorgeous. The second half is along a road through pine forests and past rice fields. Slightly less secluded, but just as lovely. The whole walk took us about 2 hours, and we still had enough energy to climb the 1,000,000 1000 steps to the top temple at Yamadera (after we'd eaten our delicious bentos).

Enough rambling, time for photos! 

View of our hike from the train station

About all there is to Omoshiroyamakogen!

Down we go!

Relaxing on the bridge

The water is so so blue and clear! 

Bridge not made for fat foreigners!

Ridiculous path cut out of sheer rock

The most life we saw on the whole path.

I need somewhere like this to come whenever I feel stressed out.

Off the path and onto the road. 

Heading towards Yamadera

Rice fields.

If you want to do the hike yourself it's really easy. At Omoshiroyamakoen, cross over the road bridge over the station and the river, and on the far side of the bridge follow the sign on the left marked ハイキングコース. After that, it's just a case of following the path. You could barely get lost if you tried. Definitely a recommended extension to a trip to Yamadera!