On the second morning after the Kakunodate matsuri parade, we headed to the West Coast to find a tempestuous and desolate wind-swept series of beaches, although less tsunami ridden, filled with concrete tetrahedra to reduce the pounding of the surf and make the coastline more accessible to fishing boats. Towards nightfall, we wound up to a high coastal volcano Mt. Chokai, shrouded on cloud and rain and stopped the night in a forest clearing, plagued by mosquitoes. In the morning we drove up to the little alpine town overlooking the summit crater, with panoramic views of the coast, and a hideously deep crater valley.
The wild western coast
Moving inland toward Mt. Chokai
We stayed the night on this side track in the forest half way up the mountain beside more bear warning signs.
Views of the summit from the lower ski park
Panoramas from the middle level
More bear signs!
Panoramas from the top of our journey
We then looped back to the sea and a couple of fishing villages with classic little rocky island shrines connected together by ropes. Just as with Futami at Ise-Shima, in the bay there are two rocks sitting side-by-side, one large, one smaller, known as Meoto-iwa (the Wedded Rocks). Two rocks are tied together by shimenawa, ceremonial rope that is made of entwined and twisted rice straw and is used to mark off sacred or purified areas. The small fishing towns broke the sandy monotony, before heading south inland to Yuza and Matsuyama Tachikawa to Haguro San subject of the next posting.
A bleak tourist hotel
Looking back to Mt. Chokai
The wedded rocks tied together by the threads that unite
Herons and shags sunning themselves
Mt. Chokai from the south as we head inland again
A shrine at Yuza
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