Our taxi pick-up today was at 9am. With just a shortish walk on the cards for today, we were looking forward to a fairly cruisy day. It started off even better because the taxi took us 1km further up the valley than it was supposed to. We arrived to find a carpark full of an enthusiastic group of hikers. They were doing warm-up exercises under the instruction of their group leader. He invited our small group of six to join in but we gracefully declined.
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| Group warm-up |
With a short backtrack we came to a very impressive viewing point, complete with a 630kg iron statue by the British sculptor Antony Gormley. His statue of a man was helicoptered on a ridgeline, and he proudly stands there looking down the valley.
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| Gormley sculpture commissioned for the 2014 Kunisaki Art Festival |
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| Hey mate! |
Close by lies Itsutsuji Fudo Temple. It is cut into a rock formation looking out on the Seto Island Sea. It is said to be the spiritual crossing point for lost souls.  |
| Climb up to the temple |
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| Itsutsuji Fudo temple hall |
A lovely teahouse is situated next door, unfortunately only used for education purposes rather than food and drink. We loved its architecture - simple, open and expansive.
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| Teahouse |
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| Our group chilling |
Today our walking track was totally different from yesterday's. We still had the odd steep stretch of steep steps but by and large the route was easy going. A real surprise was in store for us when we reached a collection of hundreds and hundreds of delightful gorinto (five-tiered pagoda gravestones). They were part of a vast Buddhist temple complex, now virtually disappeared. The five levels of each pagoda (starting from the ground) represent earth, water, fire, wind and space.
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| Stepped path as part of the historic temple complex |
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| Five-tiered pagoda gravestones |
Onto another temple, again where the rockface had been hand-sculpted to allow the building to nestle into the hillside. This one, had been founded in 718, and had grown over the centuries to cover a huge area stepped down the mountain-slope. No other buildings remain because they were made of wood and thatch, however there is plenty of evidence of pathways, irrigation channels, gravesites and stone walls.
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| Kyu Sento-ji Temple |
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| Pathway up to the temple |
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| The guardian demons no longer have a building to guard |
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| Stone pathway and irrigation ditch |
Yesterday we were quite stunned by the massive amount of stonework to create terraces on the steep hillsides we were traversing. Stone walls of 1m, 2m or 3m height had been constructed at regular intervals over vast areas. Many were still in good condition, but the land had been taken over by forest, either random growth or planted in Japanese cedars (sugi). At one time these mountainsides must have sustained a very significant population and provided large-scale harvests of rice or other produce.
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A small area of stone walls, these ones only about 1m in height
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After only about 5km of walking, we came descended to the valley floor and joined the main road. Our friends in the tour group opted to take a taxi from here to the port, and then onwards the 20-minute ferry ride to Himeshima Island and the end-point for the day. John and I felt we still had a bit of walking left in us (why?) and opted to walk the 6km down to the port. It was actually very pleasant, walking along some minor roads instead of the main road, passing many plots in production, including tobacco, and calling out Konichiwa to those old people out hoeing their fields. It became very clear very soon that many of the rural houses were abandoned. We reckoned perhaps 50% were boarded up, with crossed tape on the windows and overgrown gardens. The depopulation of rural land is a major issue for the Japanese government, and we could see how badly it was affecting the area we were walking through. Most of the empty houses were very substantial and likely once housed two or more generations. The cultivated land around them had gone to seed. It was sad to see.
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| Fish kites for Boys' Day |
Once we arrived at Imi Port, revived by an ice-cream and then an excellent bento box that had been prepared by our accommodation hosts before we left this morning, there was nearly an hour's wait until the ferry arrived to take us to Himeshima Island. The quick 20-minute crossing was calm and fun. We couldn't check in to our accommodation until 3pm so opted to do a two short walk recommended by the tour company. First was a visit to the traditional house of the village headsman in the Edo period (built in 1842). It is an historical capsule and certainly was intriguing to look through both the house and the garden. The formal entrance area and rooms where visitors were received were quite separate to the residential and kitchen areas of the house.
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| Looking into the formal reception area |
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| Kitchen, note the beams |
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| Reception room |
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| Formal entrance |
It was then a short walk to the peninsula and, after a short steep heave, a brilliant view of a small shrine at the end of the trail. It sits beside a small circular volcanic crater. The latter is composed of a milky-gray obsidian rock, which was mined in the Paleolithic Age and used for making tools and weapons.
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| Seaweed drying at the port |
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| King prawn farm |
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| Sennindo Hall/Shrine on the peninsula |
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| Looking into the 70m circular crater |
Both sites were well worth visiting, but we were also keen to rest up for a bit and enjoy the rest of the afternoon. Tonight, for our final accommodation on the walk tour, is a family-run traditional ryokan inn. Our lovely host told us it is 110 years old. After a bit of a rest and welcome wallow in the ofuro, which is a smallish tub and is suitable for couples and families, i.e. males and females do not have to bathe separately. It suited us just fine.
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| Our ryokan |
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| Our room |
Our guidebook stated that our final meal tonight would be a fantastic array of locally sourced seafood, and indeed it proved to be. It was perhaps our best meal of the whole tour. With a seemingly endless variety of fish dishes (10 in all), plus the usual collection of pickles, soups and rice, topped off by a delicate creme brulee, we couldn't not have asked for anything more. In fact, I don't think we will and won't eat for the next week. The meals over the last five days have been amazing, and it's just as well we've been walking upwards of 15km/day to offset them, though in reality the amount of food isn't vast.
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| Starters |
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| Tempura tiger prawns and an egg/fish dish |
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| Hi! |
We felt sufficiently replete, and don't think we will eat for the next week!
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