New Year’s Day at a mountain shrine

Barry, as grocery shopper extraordinaire, found this building near our hotel. We know Daiso which is on the second level, but there is nothing on the exterior (except the Japanese sign), that gives you the idea that there is an excellent grocery store on the main level. Not understanding some of the signs here in Japan, we mistook the big sign on top as being related to something nuclear. A bit embarrassing on our part, but one can always learn. 🥴

Shopping for groceries is hungry work. We also discovered that there is a very good little restaurant on the main level. Lunch it is. Mary Ellen had a yummy egg, pork rice bowl with miso soup.

Barry had tuna sashimi, tempura and cold soba noodles with a dipping sauce.

We love the Japanese sesame salad dressing. We are hoping that we can find some at the Japanese store, Fujiya in Victoria. I think we sometimes get a salad just so that we can enjoy the dressing!

Tempura…prawn, Japanese pumpkin and this leaf. As usual…delicious.

Of course, the star of the meal for us is always tuna sashimi. It melts in your mouth.

We are fortified by lunch and are going to explore a mountain on our trikes. It is one of our favourite places in Nago. We will experience beautiful forest with tropical flowers and jungle, superb view, more cats than we can count, castle ruins, it has it all.

Locals love this place and hike it daily. The walking paths are extensive and criss cross the paved road that we will be riding on. These steps are just the beginning.

This is one of the many cats who live at this site. Some have claimed their territory at the beginning, and we will see cats throughout our ride as we climb. “Sorry to interrupt your bath” but the cat isn’t bothered by us. I’m sure the cat would be happy if we offered some food, but these wild cats are fed daily by some kind hearted and faithful locals.

The landscape is incredibly lush with a jungle like feeling.

We ride with the cars on this winding road.

A sleepy contented cat…he knows the food is coming later.

It is quite a beautiful ride. There are many places to stop..lookouts, a big children’s play park and picnic area, shrines, coffee cafe etc. Riding on the road we get to appreciate the beautiful flora and fauna alongside.

At this rest stop is a pair of Shisa keeping the area safe.

Visitors have an incredible infrastructure which makes the mountain accessible for cars, walkers and bikes. In theory, one could walk here and feel like you have it to yourself as the network of paths is huge.

Beautiful trees with vines covering the branches and trunks.

You can see some of the beach we explored a few days ago.

This 3 level lookout structure is as far as we will ride. The road becomes more of a hiking trail and we are at the top.

These sisters met us at the lookout. We are in awe of where we are and typically the people we meet are primarily interested in our strange looking trikes and what we are doing. Our trikes create a situation which breaks the ice giving us such wonderful interactions with strangers.

Japan constantly impressed us with their infrastructure keeping erosion under control.

We appreciate seeing these information boards identifying birds and animals native to this area.

Thankfully we didn’t encounter a wild boar.

This suspension bridge is part of a walking route. From the children’s play area we walked down a few flights of stairs and discovered this beautiful bridge which spans a dense, lush jungle below.

The bridge has several mosaics of local birds and animals.

After crossing the bridge, you can see the concrete walking path to the right. This grove of palm trees and other trees have labels.

Climbing back to our trikes after exploring the bridge. I am grateful that I can ride here as walking would limit what I could see.

This small shrine has also been decorated for New Year’s.Earlier on our ride up the mountain we stopped at the shrine. The parking area was jammed with cars. Later on our way down we stopped at the shrine and is was calm, quiet and peaceful.

A few photos of this small, humble shrine in a special setting. Enjoy.

In the first section of the climb is a shrine. This is one shrine where we don’t have to climb stairs, we can walk in from where we will park our trikes.

A funny story from when we last visited Nago on a previous trip. We were standing at this very spot when we saw a man climbing the stairs coming to the Shrine. He looked familiar. The three of us were in disbelief at how small a world this can be when we recalled that we had met this Malaysian man in Sapporo Hokkaido earlier. When we arrived at the hotel in Sapporo, he and his family were checking into the same hotel and he approached us to ask about our trikes. The happenstance of the three of us being in this remote spot at the same time made us wonder at the synchronicity of it all.

Couldn’t resist touching the bamboo…it is so solid and tough, like a metal pole.

We find this plant fascinating. At a time in its growth, the leaves start to curl, almost like a coil.

This sign explains the Animal Protection Law: Abandoning cats, dogs and other protected animals is a crime. Penalty for this is 1 year in jail or 1 million yen. It is also a crime to abandon stray cats.

The cats that we see together seem to get along. It is good to see wild cats being cared for.

We have finished our ride and the cats who live at the bottom have come for a visit….well, food..more likely.

A walk by visit…if gentle, they appreciate a head pat.

Orion is the main Okinawan brewery and it is based here in Nago. Very popular, but our favourite is Asahi Super Dry.

At the local school, we saw this sign. It basically says…follow the 7 rules: early to bed, early to rise, breakfast at 6:30. We rode around the school and Barry loved it. Each wing had its own courtyard.

We have never ventured into the local Nago Museum. It might be good but its exterior is not too encouraging. We never seem to have time.

Love this building with its giant lizard.

Today's ride: 21 km (13 miles)
Total: 1,881 km (1,168 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	4
Comment on this entry	Comment	0