Yamadera

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The trail

Yamadera or Risshaku-ji is absolutely amazing and anybody who is in Sendai or Yamagata needs to go there and do the extended hike up. It makes the trip up to Yamadera so much more worth it. Especially if your around for the changing of the leaves.

At 10:50am my co and I caught a rapid express train out to Yamadera. It takes about 50 minutes and around 820yen on the Senzan Line. Though, you could just pay the least amount and get away with it because there never seems to be anybody getting tickets at Omoshiro-yama. Though I am not sure about Yamadera station either. My co had been to Yamadera before and knew of the perfect hike along the river if we got off at the stop before Yamadera; which was Omoshiro-yama. When leaving Omoshiro-yama station you head across the small bridge and the take an immediate left and head down toward the river. Right at the beginning you see a beautiful waterfall and some mad-made bridges to get you across. My co and I climbed down this old metal ladder to get our pictures taken with it. There are waterfalls and large rocks, beautiful views and lots of man-made walking planks to help you along. My co and I stopped numerous times to take pictures of each other by the waterfalls, on large rocks, and even a fallen log. The fallen log is a pretty funny story since my co was determined to get out there and get a picture with her on it. Its a quick hour hike along the river then you head up to the main road. Its about a 3km hike up toward Yamadera from there. You walk straight through a smaller village/city where the houses are huge and the views couldn't have been more beautiful. There was even cars that have been taken over by the vines and can hardly be seen. The walk itself is beautiful and the weather couldn't have been better for that type of hike. Make sure to pack some food for the walk. If you take the longer hike you won't hit a place to eat till Yamadera and its easier to hit the temple complex before walking the city and getting something to eat.

It takes about 3 hours to get to Yamadera with the hike up. Yamadera itself is a large temple complex that, according to the LP, is thought to be the boundary between this world and the afterlife. The whole complex is perched along 841-1000 steps, my co and I counted at least 841 till she lost count at the very end. Its 300yen and so worth the longest stair-master you've ever been on. There are so many side trips that are full of old cemetery statues or even small memorial rock monuments. There are a couple trees that get money stuck in them. It was absolutely amazing. Even funnier is all the Japanese who kept telling us, "Gambatte", or "good luck/keep working", on the way up the stairs. It was even funnier when I would talk back to them in Japanese and they would all be amazed. One guy even stopped and got a picture of my co and I after we chatted his him for a minute on the way up. It was just too cute.

The views from the top are amazing. You can see the entire valley and most of the whole town of Yamadera. My co headed up to another lookout while I relieved myself and cooled off and got some rest for my poor legs. The whole time I was sitting there I called out to the passing Japanese tourists, '"Gambatte" or "mo sukoshi" and have them laugh at me and say "so many stairs". A couple even stopped and chatted with me for a couple minutes. A couple of collage students dragged out a small conversation that included all the English they could think of and most of the Japanese I could think of at that point too. It was just too funny though. We hiked down and wondered around the city to get some senbei; which are grilled rice cakes smothered in sauce along with spices or black sesame and around 200yen a stick, and I got a stick of konnyaku; which is a gelatin food apparently made from roots and cooked in soy sauce for about 100yen. I thought the konnyaku was better then the senbei but my co thinks the opposite.

We caught the next train back to Sendai and went out to dinner at a good Indian place. The whole day barely took 7 hours and it was so worth the trip. Doing the extended hike was so amazing and made the whole day so much better.

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