02/07/2023 / Last updated : 04/07/2023 d.d Temple / Shrine

Haruna Jinja and Mitsumine Jinja　榛名神社、三峯神社

April 13th. 2023 Michi no eki Green Flower Bokujo Oogo Green Flower Bokujo Oogo proves to be an excellent choice for an overnight stay. The parking area behind the buildings is away from the main road, quiet, flat and spacious. As the facilities can be accessed from either side of the building this is the obvious choice. The facilities themselves are excellent and well maintained though, from a personal perspective, the choice of music I found detrimental to the overall experience. There is also a spacious park next door with tulips and a replica windmill. This park has an observation platform to view the expanse of the Kanto Heiya (plain) […]

22/06/2023 / Last updated : 22/06/2023 d.d Temple / Shrine

Nomizo Waterfall and Naritasan Shinsho-ji　濃溝の滝、成田山新勝寺

April 10th. 2023 Very good quiet night at Rosemary Park. In the morning we walk around the other section of the michi no eki. This is the, now abandoned, Shakespeare Park. This consists of a few replica Elizabethan buildings and a small formal garden in a state of some decay. Nomizo waterfall and Kameiwa cave From the michi no eki we drive to Nomizo waterfall and cave. From the parking area there is a short walk and then some steps down to a stream that less than cascades through a natural arch. This forms a pleasing and photogenic scene. Apparently, in the early morning at the equinox you can see […]

16/06/2023 / Last updated : 16/06/2023 d.d Temple / Shrine

Shibamata Taishakuten and St. Mary’s Cathedral　柴又帝釈天

April. A few days in Tokyo. Some days in Tokyo not by choice but obligation. Nevertheless, some points of interest. Nagatoro　長瀞 We took a trip out to Nagatoro for a picnic. This proved something of a disappointment. It is the head waters of the Arakawa, the large river cutting through Tokyo from Saitama. At Nagatoro, it is not very large, but it flows through a gorge and there are boat rides of the traditional kind. There is a rocky scrubland where the river probably flows when in spate or used to flow in the past. Here you can walk and picnic. It is fine as a respite from the city […]

05/02/2019 / Last updated : 29/01/2023 d.d Temple / Shrine

Michi-no-eki Myogi and Chichibu　秩父

Summer 2018, Michi-no-eki Myogi As expected Myogi RS. turned out to be hot and steamy. There was also some revving of engines and high speed comings and goings. So D. told me. I confess, I slept through most of it. We learn later that Myogi is something of a Mecca for Bosozoku so perhaps it is not such a good place for shachuhaku(sleep in a car) even if handy for Tokyo. The michi-no-eki itself is fine, overhung by the rock massif of Mt. Myogi. Halfway up, on a crag, there is a clear white kanji ‘Dai’. This, I am told, denotes a shrine; which I am disinclined to visit. Chichibu […]

19/12/2018 / Last updated : 16/03/2023 d.d Temple / Shrine

Nikko, Senjogahara hiking　日光

Day 61, November 2016, The morning is cold in michi-no-eki Nikko. There is ice on the windscreen for the first time. The michi-no-eki (road station) is not very large but very busy as people visit the toilet and the convenience store. Toshogu, Tokugawa Ieyasu. It is time for us to pay our respects to Tokugawa Ieyasu, so we head out to his shrine, Toshogu. This shrine, where Tokugawa Ieyasu was enshrined as a god, was re-constructed in 1636 by his grandson the third Tokugawa shogun. We have some trouble finding the car park but, eventually, walk to the shrine. The entrance fee is an exorbitant 1300 yen, especially as most […]