21 November 2018
Long train to large Buddha at Nokogiri
Hiking up and around Nokogiri from Hama-Kanaya station
My titles are getting a lot less creative.
For my last journey on this trip I took a 2 hour (each way) train ride down past Chiba, east of Tokyo to Nokogiri. I had never been to this region before.
Nokogiri is a mountain of sorts, but more well known as the home of the giant Buddha. It is possibly the largest in Japan. It is also an old quarry.
Taiwan and China and Chinese Taiwan and one China and Chinese Taipei and former Japan occupied Formosa all do giant Buddha better than Japan, but giant Buddha is giant Buddha.
Anyway, its not all about the Buddha, there is also a small mountain to climb and more views to be had. But first, 3 trains of snot garglers. Now for some casual racism.
I think its genetic. Japanese people gargle mucus non stop. I have never heard the movement of liquid inside the heads of people outside of Japan. But, is this genetic or environmental? Is it a learned behaviour?
I think it might be genetic, because I think Chinese people have the same issue, but rather than gargle on it all day long, they spit it out. Currently I think I prefer the spitting!
This is why in Japan they have the face masks, so they can pretend its not them thats choking on a litre of mucus, but someone else with a face mask nearby.
Thats my theory, its probably wrong.
My return journey from the giant Buddha allowed me to change to a slightly faster limited express train that went via the coast through all the industries and past the Disney resorts. This was very interesting, its all reclaimed land and the amount of very large canals and huge industry mixed with numerous resorts was all in a part of Tokyo I had not seen before. I guess at street level you wouldnt really see much, but the train was elevated and at times was above the water for kilometres at a time. I enjoyed my quicker quieter return journey very much, I had an entire limited express carriage to myself.
Now onto the last big set of pics for this trip, only tonight and tomorrow morning to go, and those will probably be very boring.
Todays photos are not nearly as nice as yesterdays. The Landscape was dull and grey, even the leafy areas. Perhaps fittingly then, here is the view out the front of one of my trains. I dont know how the driver can see, the windows are filthy.
I got off at Hama-Kanaya, a tiny station in the middle of nowhere. Thats some annoying lense flare again!
Before going uphill, I went downhill, to the beach. It was quite nice, very very bright! This photo came out quite well.
Time to get climbing. I had meticulously planned a path to take me up a remote way to the top of Mount Nokogiri. It did not go to plan and I got lost 3 times! Luckily it is only a very small mountain.
There were lots of spots to check out the view today, but it was very hazy. The whole place smelt like a fire due to farmers again. Bloody farmers ruining my view. I have done what I can to cut through the haze!
This whole place used to be a quarry, right up until 1980. I dont understand how they cut the huge cubes of stone out of the cliff face using just a hammer and chisels.
Basically all of that rock face was cut away by men wearing only their underpants, the photos I looked at on the signs made it look like hot hard and dirty work.
Here you can see where they cut into and under the cliffs. Just to see if they could invent the most awesome way ever to die, crushed by a million tonnes of rock.
This is not bricks or concrete, those lines are from hand tools used to cut out slabs of solid rock some how. I dont understand it at all.
It was at about this point after going a long way down I realised I should not have been going down at all. Time to double back. I do that a lot.
Before too long I was back on the right path. This is the view back to Tokyo. You cant see it due to the smog.
You can however see across to the other side of Tokyo bay, and check out a heap of ships. The white building is the top station of the ropeway for lazy people going to see the Buddha. I was quite far from that at this point, but still a bit further to go to the summit of tiny Mount Nokogiri.
The view down to Tateyama at the foot of the Chiba Peninsula looks very inviting. If only it didnt take so long for the trains to get there. They need another bullet train. Get on it Japan!
HERE IS THE LAST SELFIE OF THIS TRIP. Enjoy it in all its magnificent grandeur. I was still wearing shorts today, but I foolishly put on a long sleeve t-shirt. It was too hot for that. HOW ABOUT THIS WEATHER WE ARE HAVING?
The summit of Mount Nokogiri is not very prominent, and its 'treed' in on 3 sides. Its a pretty bland grey looking view really.
Time to back track again and check out some more ancient quarrying. This was a nice mossy bit.
I had to go down, then back up again. But I didnt mind. I was enjoying the last chance for climbing stairs in the wilderness of the quarry and giant Buddha theme park.
Here is a redundant photo of the same view again from the top of a staircase. Thats a nice freeway.
Ahhh, this is not the giant Buddha! Although I think this one is bigger. You have to be able to climb a bit over rocks and stairs to get to this one so its not as popular.
Hmmm, photos do not really give a sense of scale. I needed a person to stand in front of it.
Staring down into the quarry abyss. This is a really crappy photo!
This is a great view, a shame its not more colorful and less smoggy. Still I appreciated it. Perhaps my expectations are too high after yesterday.
I like the clouds in this one.
OK, this is the official big Buddha, giant Buddha, whatever you want to call him. This is the main attraction of the park, which has a 600 yen entry fee. I think the one carved into the cliff is more impressive.
Perhaps you prefer portrait orientation?
Further down towards the car park there appears to be a whole heap of nice temples and shrines, but you are not allowed in. This is the only one I could photograph.
If you dont take the ropeway / cablecar back down, you end up in a bus parking area far from anywhere. After a 5km walk I got back to a station, Hota station. It is not much of a station, not even a convenience store. I bought a small bar of chocolate from a general store that sold a small selection of food (pickled or packet food generally that never goes off), hardware, clothing, and fishing gear.
There was 20 minutes until my train, so just enough time to run down to the beach and back and take one last photo staring directly into the sun so I can continue complaining about lens flare! This one has no horrible flare but its too bright.