21 April 2025
Get to the dam temple
Nanzoin temple and Narufuchi dam
Today was the rest day with no plan, so I went and saw a dam and a temple. And what a temple it was, the temple with the largest bronze reclining Buddha... in the whole world. Possibly the only reclining bronze Buddha statue in the world, but don't let that dampen your excitement.
Getting to Nanzoin temple is very easy, board the train at Hakata, and get off at Kidonanzoin-Mae Station and you are there, the temple is over the road from the station.
Entry is free, so unless they were going to pay me to go, hard to beat. But, this is one of the few temples I know of where they enforce a dress code, I had read this in advance and wore pants, but guys in shorts were given a green skirt to wear, see photos below.
After reclining and getting mad at my ice cream (also refer below), I walked down the surprisingly busy road to the dam at Narufuchi. About a 30 minute walk from the temple to the bottom of the dam, but then you have to walk up it, which for some people would be a dam too far. I thought it was great, and had the whole dam to myself.
Then it was just a short walk down the dam and I was back at Chikuzen-Yamate Station, where trains were signifcantly delayed due to 'customer rescue'.
Here is Kidonanzoin-Mae station, IC card ok. It is a JR line, where every station has an overly complex name.
Right over the road, the temple experience starts, with a red one and flowers.
The area occasionally has no photo signs, but also no filming signs, no tripod signs, best spot for photo signs, please post on instagram signs, it was all a bit confusing, but they were very clear about no shorts. I think this was actually a no photo area.
The whole place is on the side of a cliff with slippery stairs.
There are also very very slippery caves, I urge extreme caution.
You can also go into the side of the cliff and breathe in some incense, probably a no photo area.
Lots of moss and rocks.
These are real turtles. I always have to look at them for a while before I can decide if they are real and alive, real and dead, or stone.
Lots of nice trees.
To get to the reclining Buddha itself (himself?), you must go through a tunnel lined with little mail boxes.
There were a lot of nice hills in the area. Here are guys forced to wear green skirts over their shorts.
I think this was again a no photo area, not sure why.
Behold, reclining Buddha. First with other people for scale.
And once again with no other people getting in the way.
I decided to have an ice cream. It was only $3. I have not had an ice cream like this for at least a decade, and the experience was not great. There was exactly zero flavour in the ice cream, I really think wherever it was made they ran out of the flavour. It was also not very frozen. The cone had a hole in the bottom, so most of it ran out of the bottom. Everyone else was getting it on their clothes as it ran out, I crouched down in a squat with my legs spread wide. There was no paper towel / napkin / serviette on offer to deal with this elaborate prank, and no bin for the bit of non absorbent paper they wrapped the bottom of the cone in, which you now had to take home with you. 0/10 would not recommend.
Wait I just remembered the last ice cream I had, a Japanese brand in Taiwan, Cremia, that was also terrible and I paid a fortune for it and ranted about it for a week afterwards!
Walking down the road was nice scenery, but it is a busy truck filled road.
Damn son, that's a dam!
The road loops around in a figure 8 to get up to it. I was having a great time.
You can shortcut some of the road with these dark enclosed lizard filled staircases.
The castle turret things are not for tourism, they are pumps etc. behind locked doors.
This dam actually has water in it.
It really is a long way down.
Great views from the top. I would like to walk along those hills.
And to get back to Hakata, you need to walk up many steps to the very elevated Chikuzen-Yamate Station, I had to wait 30 minutes for a train that is supposed to come every 10 minutes due to 'customer rescue'.
Today's temple does not get much press, but I think it compares favourably with many much more famous temples across Japan.