{"id":1667,"date":"2010-11-21T22:43:57","date_gmt":"2010-11-21T13:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2010-11-21\/1667"},"modified":"2010-11-21T22:43:57","modified_gmt":"2010-11-21T13:43:57","slug":"beating-the-crowds-at-the-middle-of-nowhere-sokushouji-temple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2010-11-21\/1667","title":{"rendered":"Beating the Crowds at the Middle-of-Nowhere Sokushouji Temple"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\nNOTE<\/b>: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f\/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>2500 sec, f<\/span>\/1.4, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nAdmiring the View<\/span>\nit's something you earn after the climb to get there\n<\/div>\n\n

Two weeks ago, in the “Bridges Across a Small<\/span> Valley in Konan<\/a>” post about an\nimpromptu far-flung photogenically-inquisitive scooter ride, I noted<\/span> that\nthe trip had produced some delights to post about. One was an<\/span>\nout-of-the-way temple not far from the bridges that I discovered<\/span> at dusk,\nbut it turns out that I wasn't<\/span> able to get around to posting about it\nbecause I've had a really<\/i> busy time since, with photographically\nproductive visits to the Kongourinji<\/a>, Konzou<\/a>, Koutouin<\/a>, Eikando<\/a>, Sanzen'in<\/a>, and Yoshiminedera<\/a>\nTemples.<\/p>\n\n

But despite not having had time to post about it, I went back<\/span> to visit\nagain today, hoping find more daylight than I had<\/span> the first time. My friend<\/span> Shimada-san joined me. Even though we got there at 1:30pm, it was already\nmostly bathed in shade. It's nestled<\/span> deep in a niche<\/span> of a steep<\/span> mountain.\nStill, it was gorgeous.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f\/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/1.6, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nToday's Autumn-Festooned Temple<\/span>\nSokushouji Temple (\u606f\u969c\u5bfa)<\/span><\/b>\nin-the-middle-of-nowhere, Japan\n<\/div>\n\n

As with all my recent trips, I've got tons of great photos, but no\nenergy to even look through them yet. I guess<\/span> I'll be posting foliage shots\nthrough to next spring.<\/p>\n\n

Today was an absolute madhouse in this part of Kyoto, because of all the\nbeautiful temples and shrines. I'm walking<\/span> distance from some of the most\nfamous in all Japan (Heian\nShrine<\/a>, Nanzen\nTemple<\/a>, Eikando\nTemple<\/a>, Kiyomizu\nTemple<\/a>, and many more), but I was<\/span> not interested in the oppressive\nweekend crowds, so thought to revisit the 1,000-year-old middle-of-nowhere\ntemple I'd discovered two weeks ago.<\/p>\n\n

I knew the drive there would be easy once I got<\/span> out of the craziness\nthat is this part of Kyoto during this time of year, so I mapped<\/span> out a\nsmart<\/span> but convoluted route that would put me on the easiest path out of\ntown, and it was going smoothly for me — the opposite direction was\nalways a parking<\/span> lot, but I had<\/span> planned well — until I simply<\/span> forgot\nto make a turn,<\/span> and that few-seconds slip cost me 25 minutes because to do\na U-turn I now<\/span> needed to drive in the parking-lot-lane direction. Sigh.<\/p>\n\n

But it was worth it. In the short<\/span> hour and a half<\/span> that we were at the\nSokushouji Temple, we saw only two other people, a couple<\/span> with a kid<\/span> my age\nwho, like us, had walked all the way up the path above the temple (and\nabove the shade, into the sun) to enjoy the view...<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f\/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 360 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nShimada-san and The Teeming Masses<\/span>\nwe four had the mountain to ourselves\n<\/div>\n\n

It was actually a little more crowded than that.... later I noticed<\/span> two mountain bikes down at the parking lot below the\ntemple, but we never did see their riders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two weeks ago, in the \"Bridges Across a Small Valley in Konan\" post about an impromptu far-flung photogenically-inquisitive scooter ride, I noted that the trip had produced some delights to post about. One was an out-of-the-way temple not far from the bridges that I discovered at dusk, but it turns out that I wasn't able to get around to posting about it because I've had a really busy time since, with photographically productive visits to the Kongourinji, Konzou, Koutouin, Eikando, Sanzen'in, and Yoshiminedera Temples.<\/p>

But despite not having had time to post about it, I went back to visit again [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,2,6,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}