Nokogiri-yama

You know that scene in Ace Ventura, When Nature Calls with the the Slinky? There's a very long staircase and he almost makes it to the bottom? Well, I'm here to tell you those places do exist. While my pictures don't do it justice, I definitely got my workout in for the day. And sadly the Slinky trick would not have worked, these stairs were curvy and through the mountains and trees, not yet above tree-line.

Nokogiri-yama or Mount Nokogiri (sawtooth) is an area in southern Chiba Prefecture with a vest amount of cultural significance but is not well-traveled by foreign tourists, I still got the usual stares and dumbfounded looks when I encountered people. This was my first experience taking the train alone, but for the most part it was a successful one. The local trains in Japan aren't really any different than an El in Chicago, many stops and relatively slow (but pretty inexpensive as well). From the station at Hamaka-naya, it was only about a 10 minute walk to Nokogiri, and up I went. To reach the 'top' I took a cable car jammed with Japanese tourists. The picture at the top was the view from the top of the cable car. I started winding my was through the mountain from there and found there were many treasures hiding within.

There were ancient stone carvings throughout the mountain, though this one, Hundred-shaku Kannon, was significantly larger than  many others. Additionally, there were thousands of small statues built into the mountainsides. Nokogiri is also home to the world's largest stone Buddha.

You can notice it has seen better days, but based on its age I'd say it is holding up quite well. I continued to wind through, up and down thousands of stairs (no exaggeration, I thought that cable car meant I only had to go down stairs...). I came across a few people who were curious about where I was from and what brought me to Japan and Nokogiri so we would talk for a few minutes at a time. Even though there are very few Western visitors to the site, they do have directions in English which was very helpful. Belive me, it's not easy following a cartoon Japanese map if you don't even have a few signs along the way. After the stone Buddha, I came across the Nihon-ji Temple, the first temple I've seen the inside of. I was surprised how well maintained they are.

After leaving the Nihon-ji temple, I saw a sign for a Japanese Tea House. Thinking this was just another attraction, I started to walk back and take a look at the gardens. Then, a man walked out and asked if I would like tea (in very respectable English). Caught off guard, I agreed and sat in the garden. I've got to say, the view was incredible, he had the best maintained garden and koi pond I've ever seen (sorry Uncle Dick), and he brought multiple courses of tea and snacks.

I headed back to Kamogawa after a long day of sightseeing at Nokogiri. The Japanese are very meticulous about their landscaping. I believe it is this trait that translates into their everyday lifestyles. They are very clean, enjoy high-end, luxury items (Gucci, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, etc. are completely normal here, even in Kamogawa), but take great care of everything and in everything that they do. Exiting the park only confirmed these thoughts.