To the gates of Hell and back again.

When I realized there was a Mt Fear in Aomori, I knew I had to go there. The same location also has the Buddhist equivalent of the river Styx (the Sanzu River) and the gate to Hell it was believed by followers of Buddism to be the doorway to hell... I'm surprised it took me this long to get up there, actually. We got up early and headed out (I packed myself a bento of Roctober Curry) to the Shimokita peninsula to the desolate, yet eerie beauty that awaited us there. I told my office co-workers where I planned to go on the weekend, and they kept (jokingly) telling me that I was going to Hell.


They also told me to say 'hello' to the ghosts I saw there.

My fellow Winnipeg JETs Mel and Jeff had gone earlier this year, so I had a little bit of an idea what to expect, but you really have to *go* there. Digital media can't quite capture it fully. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We stopped briefly along the shore of Mutsu bay at an combini for a coffee fix and bathroom break, and to snap a shot of the toga-sporting-chick-riding-a-clam-statue. ;) Catie read what the sign said, but I can't remember the cliff's notes version. Sorry, kids. I think it was something about protection and good scallop gathering.
As we weren't following a very tight schedule, when I caught sight of this as we approached, I decided we should stop for a moment to investigate. I'm really glad that we did (there's a nice bathroom across the highway from it as an added bonus. Woo hoo!) as we got a lot of really nice pictures. As Catie said, it was like Princess Mononoke's forest in real life (I think I even heard the little rattle-head-dudes carried on the breeze).

Up, up, up the mountain we went, and there were more and more stacks of stones and markers along the road. I wish I could have read them all, or knew what they were all about, but they just added to the eerie feeling I was getting from this journey. As we approached our destination, the smell of sulpher grew stronger and stronger. Finally, we arrived at the caldera Lake Usori (宇曽利山湖/うそりやまこ) and the river that drains from it. I believe the whole thing is associated with the Sanzu River (the River of Three Crossing, the boarder between the land of the living and that of the dead). It was really tough, but I resisted the urge to stand atop the bridge and belt out Mr.Robot or Come Sail Away.

Like...

really...

really hard.

But it just didn't seem appropriate.

...Plus I think these statues would have come to life and beat my ass for my Dennis DeYoung impression... and then gone to Canada and kicked my Dad in the junk and slapped my Mum. I just couldn't be responsible for that.

The lake and river were a beautiful blue colour in some places. I'm not sure that my photos quite captured that part properly. We left the car behind at the river bridge and walked along the water's edge to the entrance to Osorezan Bodai-ji Temple.

The landscape was nothing but stacks of rocks, pools and creeks of sulphur and statues/shrines scattered about. The temple itself was quite beautiful inside, but, naturally, photography of the interior is prohibited. Catie and I enjoyed a short visit to the small onsen on the temple grounds. I think that it was my favorite one so far. For one thing, we were the only folks inside, so I got to snap a photo. Neither the largest nor the smallest one I have visited thus far, but it *was* the first proper, naturally fed and heated hot spring. It was glorious and worth smelling like sulphur. Such joy from a simple pleasure. Once attired, we went out to look for the boys and continue exploring the grounds.

Eerie does not quite do it justice, nor does 'spooky' or 'ominous'.

I mean, I know that nothing can grow on the land where the sulphur is seeping through.

The pinwheels which decorate the landscape are left for children who have died.

Being on top of a mountain, there is generally going to be wind blowing most of the time, so the pinwheels will be spinning all the time.

There are crows all over Japan, they are actually a nuisance.

But, when you combine them all together...

See what I mean? Perhaps, unsettling is a closer word?
Not quite though, because it wasn't uncomfortable being there. It was more fascinating than anything.

Well, my limited vocabulary be damned, it's no wonder that the whole location is thought to be where the entrance to Hell is. There is even a sign post marking it's location. I even found a skull in the rocks, worn through by sulphur, which continued to steam out the 'eye sockets', 'nose' and 'mouth', all stained green/yellow. You *cannot* tell me that isn't cool. Well, you can tell me all you like, I'll just think you're a fool.
I ended up falling behind from my group most of the time, I was trying to get good pictures, and, it just felt like the kind of place that I should be exploring in silence, as much as possible. If I knew anything about praying or things like that, I would have been doing that as I ventured from statue/shrine to statue/shrine. Eventually we all gathered together again on the shores of Paradise Beach. There was a small hut with benches, and this shrine with two bells. The one on the left was for 'hope' which we all rang (and you can hear being rung in the video I posted), the one on the right, we weren't too clear on what it was for.. So we stuck with ringing the 'hope' bell. Right after I rang it, the sun shone a little brighter. Pretty neat, huh?