OK, another tough day. I felt a lot better after 9 hours of sleep and went to Yamadera just outside Yamagata city. There’s a 7Eleven right by the hotel and I got the same breakfast there that I got at Mini Stop yesterday and headed to the train station. Google decided it didn’t know how to get me to Yamadera but my small short-term memory remembered I wanted an 8:18 train. I asked the station attendant if memory was correct and he looked at me like I was a moron and told me to go to track 5. It’s only ~55 minutes from Sendai to Yamadera, which is about the time it takes to go from Osaka to Kyoto.
However, here’s proof I’m a moron:
No thunderstorms (I felt ONE drop in the evening) but it was HOT. Plus it’s HUMID. Who the hell goes up 1000 steps to a mountain temple when it’s over 90 degrees? (You probably know that idiot personally since there are only three people reading this blog and I know all three of you.)
I don’t know if you can see it, but about in the very middle of this picture, in the hill, is the temple I wanted to go see. Why, you might ask. I’m not really sure. At least I got a start in the morning.
So off I went. Here’s the start of the 1000 steps.
And here’s the first temple at the bottom:
Fortunately the first part was in the shade. And even more fortunately, I didn’t take pictures of every shrine and temple on the way up. There were a couple of Chinese tourists doing that for me and I’m sure you can find those on-the-line SOMEWHERE.
I was pretty overheated and sweaty by the time I got to the top and here’s a picture of the highest temple (a pair) you can get to. One is older, and one is newer and there’s lots of differences in the statues of deities between the two. I can go on and on, but you should either find me (both of you who read this far in this blog will have the chance) or just google it.
What I really wanted to do is to get to the highest temple, but I was told I’m 50 years too late for that. I just took a selfie at the highest point I could get to, an observation deck of sorts.
Keep in mind I wasn’t thinking clearly and didn’t take all the pictures on the first time up so I had to climb up to the “observation deck” twice.
I made it down and went into a temple I skipped on the way up. I paid ¥200 to go into the temple and luckily it was a bit cooler inside the temple. After that I staggered back to the station after getting a bit lost. I had to ask the locals for directions. I did have a small snack before the train came. A pear soft ice cream is all I could handle at the time.
If you look carefully you’ll note that the t-shirt should be a paler shade of blue but it’s SOAKED in sweat. I bet I lost 10 lbs in water weight. Maybe more.
Two stops back towards Sendai was…
I left out a bit. There was also a “30-minute walk” from the station to the Nikka Miyagiko Distillery that I bet was closer to 50 minutes. In the heat. With no shade.
I took the tour and the distillery was HUGE. Even though they’re taking a break from selling some of the whiskey, it’s probably 5-10 times the size of the Yamazaki distillery.
Look at the stills! That doesn’t include the two Coffey stills!
After the tour they only give you a few tastes, but you can buy a bunch more! Where in the world can you get a short pour of the 21-year-old Taketsuru for ¥500? Or the award winning 17-year-old Taketsuru for ¥400? I asked them to sell me double pours (closer to a shot).
I even had a ¥7000 taste of the limited edition Taketsuru that only had 300 bottles in the production run!
The bartender shift changed and Ross from Adelaide (via Scotland) was suggesting all sorts of interesting things.
You can see rehydrating with whiskey wasn’t helping me take pictures BEFORE I had the taste.
This is one of the three “flavors” of whiskeys they use to make the Taketsuru and was my last taste. Both of you who read this blog know I’m a talker, and when I drink I get even more chatty. A couple of older Japanese gentlemen came to my table and I started talking to them instead of the bartender. They told me they were on a tour and had an extra seat to get back to Sendai. One of the gentlemen offered me a ride back, which meant I didn’t have to walk back to the train station. In the heat. With no shade.
What I didn’t know is that the gentleman making the offer was the president of a company and the rest of the group were other company presidents who were his suppliers. Once a year they all met for an excursion. One last stop before heading to Sendai, they had fried tofu.
On the ride back they also asked if I wanted to join them for dinner though it would be dutch. I had no idea it would be so fancy. Actually I had a slight idea so I went to Uniqlo and bought myself a shirt with a collar (¥500 on the sale rack!) because all I brought were light gym t-shirts.
Dinner was ¥10,000, but it was worth it. Little morsels but so excellent.
The pictures don’t include the beer, wine, and dessert.
They invited me along tomorrow for a tour of Matsushima!