Day Six

We had found another haikyo to visit, an abandoned school, somewhere in deep Shikoku. Reaching the end of the road, there appeared to be construction going on nearby and a lot of activity, so we gave up on that idea. But on the map there was some line... is that a cable car?

Yes, we had arrived at the base for climbing Mt Ishizuchi, which is famous for one of Japan's 7 Holy Mountains, and the site of the hardest-to-access temple (#88) on the Shikoku Temple Pilgrimage. To get to the temple you need to climb at least 3 hours up, part of the way on chains that are bolted into the mountain.

We weren't quite prepared to spend 6 hours hiking, but we could at least take the cable car up to the lower peak for some nice views.

At the parking lost there was a small shine for good hiking luck, complete with a scale model of the mountain. Note the little chains that represent that part of the climb.




No English to be found in this whole area #stuffwhitepeoplelike




Entrance to the ropeway. Hmm.. this doesn't look too amazingly well maintained...




Hey look, Geta (traditional wooden shoes) that would fit me :V




H...hello? Where is everyone? Is this place really open? We could hear the distant hum of an electric engine so the ropeway must be running.




There it is. We found the station, bought out tickets and waited. We'd be the only people on our car.




Here's a map of the whole way to the temple on the peak




Up up and away! You can also see a smaller mining(?) cable system that ran parallel with the passenger one. It looked fully rusted and neglected.




We then continued on to the peak using a chairlift, which is mainly for use in the winter when there's a skiing area here






I spotted an abandoned ladies' room haikyo but nobody wanted to go in




View of some amazingly green mountains and valleys




The old-timer running the top of the chair lift must have gotten hot as on the way down we passed this electric fan going up...






Stopped at a Yoshinoya on the way to our hotel for the day. We saw a weird guy who came in, took a bunch of photos of things like tables, chairs, etc. When he was down he bowed to an empty table and chair and left... We later saw him in the kitchen as well. Yoshinoya Otaku? Or staff from headquarters checking up on this franchise? Who knows... Didn't see a nametag or anything.


The night was spent in Okayama. I took a walk and spotted some fun business names.

This one HAD to be on purpose, right? That key looks so phallic.




Ful ful beauty (ful in swedish = ugly)




The Park'n Park, when you don't really need to ride.