Livin' the McDream: GATES OF HELL?!

Had a great day today (July 13, 2013)!! Explored a new beach, found a very cool place thanks to my excellent navigational skills (Keenan might disagree on that, but I did find it), and visited the Gates of Hell! Our trip was about 110 km (68 miles) each direction, but driving non-stop would take about 4 hours round trip.

Here's our driving route from the day.

First stop out of Misawa was Sand Dollar Beach. This beach is northeast of Misawa on the Pacific Ocean. Easy to see how it got it's name. Hundreds of sand dollars on the beach. Most were broken, but we collected plenty that were intact. There were a few guys there surfing, but I don't think swimming is technically allowed there. Almost all of the beaches here are off limits for swimming due to the dangerous currents. Water is definitely too cold for me to even think about swimming though!

Lots of huge white shells.

Sand dollars.

Shells and trash.

Just love that we can walk on the beach
AND see mountains on the horizon!

Soooo many shells.

Waterway that separates the beaches.

Road to the beach.

Somebody picked me flowers...

From Sand Dollar Beach we continued to head north. I'd found directions to something called Monomizaki on the Misawa ITT website. It didn't say what Monomizaki was but I figured if they had written out directions it must be a popular place or at least a place worth visiting. The directions were not specific at all, said it would take 1.5 hours, told us what road to be on and what direction to go and then said this...

"The road will get extremely curvy, right before it goes downhill into a tiny fishing town there is a tiny strip of gravel on the right hand side of the road to park on. Park there, go through the gate in the fence, and follow the trails to the tip of the peninsula. There are also rope and stairs to get down the steep sides of the peninsula. Use extreme caution."

Say what? Every few kilometer there's a new fishing town, and what does the writer consider "tiny"? Well, I looked at a map and saw where I thought the road looked "curvy" and assumed that was where we needed to go. So we drove until we thought we should be pretty close, but the road never got "curvy" and we went through a long tunnel. Other than highway numbers all the road signs are in Japanese and we didn't have anyway of knowing where we were exactly. The next problem was our average travel time when following directions has been much faster than the average, so 1.5 hours for us and we might be past it. I saw a shrine with a long set of stairs and thought maybe that was what we were looking for, at least the stairs could have something to do with the description of the place. So we turned around and made our way back through the town (not tiny by my standards) and took a turn that went away from the highway and toward the shrine I noticed. We didn't find the way to the shrine, but we did drive past a small gravel parking lot with a gate in a fence and then the road got curvy. FOUND IT!! Apparently when the directions were written, the road we found had been the highway, then they built a tunnel and new highway around the town and the driving directions and our map had not been updated. Keenan was of course in disbelief that I somehow got us there, haha.
So glad we found this place though! One of the most beautiful places either of us had ever seen. We were able to climb around on the lava rock formations and admire the view and crashing waves. I was amazed to see wild lilies and irises growing everywhere! The pictures pretty much speak for themselves! (Sorry there's so many)

Part of the trail, very narrow and steep drop offs on each side.

Disappointed that this one didn't come out better,
can barely see Keenan on that rock

Waves crashing.

Had fun climbing the lava rocks.

He could have watched the waves all day long!

Day lilies and purple irises.

I will never get over how clear the water is!

Nice sturdy, reliable stairs and rope...

First portion of the "trail",
the weeds were only about waist high...

Our original plan was to go see wild horses at Cape Shiriya, but since the weather was so nice and sky so clear we decided to go to the Gates of Hell instead, we could see the horses any day. We continued driving north/northwest through Mutsu to Mt. Kamabuse, on the mountain there was an observation tower. From the tower we could see the city of Mutsu, the back of "the hatchet", Lake Usori (where the Gates of Hell are) and could see Hakkaido which is the Japanese island to the north of us (we live on the largest island named Honshu). Hakkaido is only visible on very clear days.

Tall boy Coke!

These statues were all over along side the mountain roads.

We don't know the significance or why they "dress them up"

Views from Mount Kamabuse lookout...

Lake Usori

This looks to Mutsu and the northeast corner of "the hatchet."

Map of "the hatchet"

Map on top of the lookout tower.
The red dot is where we were and the box on the upper right
shows the area we were able to see.

Another view of Mutsu and the back of "the hatchet,"
the water on the right is Mutsu Bay, at the top is the Pacific Ocean.

He said this was his favorite view...haha

From the mountain lookout we went to Mount Osore, or Osorezan or meaning "Mount Fear" or "Gates of Hell". Osorezan is a very sacred place in the Buddhist religion.
Here are some pictures of the brochure we got with some interesting info about how the place was discovered and the meaning of it all.

Admission ticket, 500 yen = ~$5.00

The Somon (outer gate).

Sanmon, this is the main gate to the Buddhist temple

One of the 2 Kongōrikishi or Nio in the Sanmon,
these statues guard the Buddha and protect against evil.

Walkway to the Bodaiji temple.

Bodaiji temple.

Looking at the back of the temple and gates.

The rocks were sulfurous and there were areas where
hot gas/natural springs were. This was a pile of burned coins.

I'm assuming the yellow area was where sulfur gas was escaping.

Don't think I've mentioned it yet, but this place smelled awful, soo much sulfurous gas in the air, rotten eggs smell...yuck!

Here's an explanation I found about the piles of rocks and other offerings:

In Japan, Jizō, is one of the most loved of all Japanese divinities. His statues are a common sight, especially by roadsides and in graveyards. Traditionally, he is seen as the guardian of children, and in particular, children who died before their parents. He has been worshipped as the guardian of the souls of mizuko, the souls of stillborn, miscarried or aborted foetuses. In Japanese mythology, it is said that the souls of children who die before their parents are unable to cross the mythical Sanzu River on their way to the afterlife because they have not had the chance to accumulate enough good deeds and because they have made the parents suffer. It is believed that Jizō saves these souls from having to pile stones eternally on the bank of the river as penance, by hiding them from demons in his robe, and letting them hear mantras.
Jizō statues are sometimes accompanied by a little pile of stones and pebbles, put there by people in the hope that it would shorten the time children have to suffer in the underworld. The statues can sometimes be seen wearing tiny children's clothing or bibs, or with toys, put there by grieving parents to help their lost ones and hoping that Jizō would specially protect them. Sometimes the offerings are put there by parents to thank Jizō for saving their children from a serious illness.
As he is seen as the saviour of souls who have to suffer in the underworld, his statues are common in cemeteries. He is also believed to be one of the protective deities of travellers, the dōsojin, and roadside statues of Jizō are a common sight in Japan.

I suppose that also explains the statues along the road too!