Reflections of Hunting the Turquoise

 

Day 1 in Mitsu.

Day 2 in Kaga

Da3 in Kasaura

Day 4 Katae

Day 5 Mihonoseki

Hunting the Turquoise

 November is my favorite time of the year to go walking in Japan, and I usually spend a lot of time walking pilgrimage routes stalking the autumn colors. For obvious reasons this year is a little different and instead I chose to stay local and explore the coast of Shimane. Whe the sun is shining and the sea is calm then it becomes turquoise....... I went on a five day walk along the eastern half of the Shimane Peninsula in search of this turquoise.

On the first day I walked from Kashima to Kaga, The photo was taken in Owashi.

Day 2 was from Kaga up to Tako. This is the harbor in Okidomari in Tako village.

On the third day while heading for Sagiura, I turned a bend in the road and came to this stunning view looking down on Kitaura.

Before reaching Shichirui on the 4th day I skirted Tamayu Bay.

My destination at the end of 5 days was Mihonoseki.

Uppurui Bay

Inome has a wonderful little sheltered cove and beach. Off to the left is a cave that is one of the entrances to Yomi, the Underworld, but I still had a lot of ground to cover on this first day of my Izumo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage so I turned right and headed along the coast.

The road and tunnel are modern creations. There were trails up and over the mountains, but in pre-modern times communication and travel between these little fishing villages would have been by boat.

The coast road heads along the south side of Uppurui Bay, a deep bite into the coast of the Shimane Peninsular. It was here in this bay that I got my first glimpses of flying fish. We were heading into Uppurui by yacht to seek shelter from a forecasted typhoon and I was amazed at how low to the water the flocks of birds were flying until the "birds" disappeared!!! They resurfaced and again flew inches above the water for about 50 meters, and it was then I realized they were fish, not birds.

The name, Uppurui, given to the village on the far side of the bay is most certainly not Japanese, on that everyone agrees, but what it means and what language the word is derived from is a mystery.

After a couple of kilometers I turn and head inland back up into the mountains that I had earlier crossed over. The road up to Gakuenji gets narrower and steeper and the sound of running water is the only sound...