It is New Years eve in Kawamata.  The English Parents walk up to the local shrine just after midnight.  Kawamata is very still, the houses are dark and quiet.

The New Year, what is going to happen in the new year?  What plans have you got for this year?  What are you hoping to achieve?  What changes will you make?  I couldn’t stop looking at the stars walking back from the shrine.  I wanted to see something unexplainable but everything was just perfect.  I wondered what the English Parents were thinking but I didn’t ask.  Talking too much felt unecessary.  I went to bed and fell asleep quickly.

The later that day..

..walking up thousands of concrete steps winding through the forest.  The leaves are cracking and there are flies everywhere; it’s like summer in Britain.  The steps disappear and the path transforms into a mossy track.  The remenants of fortification are visible now: stacked stone, flattened areas, embankments.  We are at the Ruins of Ishinomiya Castle.

I never knew this place existed until I visited Dainichiji temple with the English Parents.  We decided to return and see the Ruins because the English Parents like the ruins, especially castle ruins.  New Year’s day seemed to make sense as the day to revisit and so…

The mossy path leads you right to the heart of the ruins, a magnificent set of giant stone steps and a squarish fortification squatting on the top of the hill.

The stairs look small in the picture above but walking up them you could feel the muscles in your legs twitching with each step.

At the top,  it was suprisingly busy with objects: some wood blocks for chairs, a small shrine, incinerator, gardening tools and a view.  No people however.

The English Parents paused to eat an orange.

The ruins are fairly comprehensive and spread out, although the stone walls and steps are the best preserved.  The other parts of the castle are just foundations now.

It’s a nice relaxing walk through leafy groves, a relaxing jaunt through a picturesque and lightly wooded landscape.  Unfortunately, the path changes at the waterfall becoming steep and treacherous.  There is a metal chain for a handrail.  The serene face of the English Parent transforms to a worried scowl.  ‘Oh why is do you always bring me to somewhere where things like this happen?’ ‘Wherever we go there is always something like this’ ‘I’m not sure if…I think it might be ok..’.
‘Throw your stick down so you can use both hands’
-The stick lands on a rock 30 foot below and shatters.

Fish heads, fish heads,  fish heads,  fish heads,  fish heads,  fish heads,  fish heads,  fish heads,  fish heads,  fish heads,  fish heads…
(‘I was enjoying that until I saw it had eyes’) (It’s in your head)

Anyway, spectacular performance from the English Parent who has acute vertigo since giving birth to me.  I applaud you!  Excellent New Year work!  Start as you mean to go on.  I did think that we would have to walk all the way back around, so thank you!

At the bottom, at the end of the path, the shrine called Dainichiji is a bit busy with cars and people.  English Parents want to see a priest in robes.  English Parents like traditional, formal Japanese clothes.

I ask the English Parents if they want to see another shrine on the way home…they say yes…

To be continued…