18th November 2012
After leaving Aonodomon, we went to Rakanji 羅漢寺, a temple. For me, the only thing that differentiate this temple from other temples is the sky lift. However, according to the explanation from wikipedia, this Rakanji is actually very special. This Rakanji is actually built embeded into the Mt. Rakan 羅漢山. Mt. Rakan has many caves, and in the caves, there are more than 3700 carved stone Buddha.Very magnificent indeed!
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| the tunnel leading to Rakanji (very autumn feel!) |
In the TripAdvisor, one of the comments from visitors was the parking lot is free of charge 無料. Hahaha!
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| if the leaves haven't fall yet, it would be more beautiful! |
Well, to go to Rakanji from the foot of the mountain, one can choose to take the sky lift or hike up there. For me, of course, i took the sky lift.
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| sky lift station towards Rakanji |
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| on the way up to Rakanji |
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| on the way down from Rakanji |
Once reached, I felt that it is a very ancient kind of place. The temple buildings are not painted in red like other Buddhist temples, the buildings are made of wood and still preserved in original wood colour.
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| there are many carved stone Buddha around the Rakanji |
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| the entrance to Rakanji (embedded into the mountain wall) |
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| interior of Rakanji |
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| explanation on the 五百羅漢 |
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| carved stone Buddha |
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| the main building of Rakanji |
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| a pond inside Rakanji |
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| the trail to Rakanji |
I forgot whether I prayed or not, after touring around the Rakanji, we left for the Hitomehakkei 一目八景.
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| a very golden Ginkgo tree near the Sky lift station |
Wow, for the first time in Nakatsu, I experienced traffic jam on the way to Hitomehakkei. Many cars were heading to Hitomehakkei for the red leaves 紅葉 view. We were lucky, right after we reached Hitomehakkei parking lots, we found an empty space. A car just left. The only thing that we forgot from here was that we missed the 'hitomehakkei' (see 8 unique rock structures in one glance). We just busied snapping photos of the red leaves. Ahhhh, why?! That was the most famous spot in Hitomehakkei!
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| traffic jam towards Hitomehakkei 一目八景 |
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| red leaves |
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| mountains and red leaves |
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| imagine the road lined with red leaves, it would be really awesome! |
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| Hitomehakkei's red leaves |
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| red maple leaves |
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| saw this in the parking lot, so cute! |
After Hitomehakkei, me and my friend went home.We faced traffic jam back home too! Anyway, luckily we went out that day, or else, we would have miss the red leaves and faced bare maple and ginkgo trees all over Nakatsu. Hahaha!
*The GPS of the rental car in Japan will show the red leaves viewing spots, so interesting 素晴らしい! (Actually during the sakura flowering time, it will show sakura viewing spots too.)
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| GPS showing the red leaves viewing spots |
*Lastly, photos of lovely flowers I found in Rakanji.
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| Hydrangea (I always like the blue colour) |
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| unknown pinkish flower |
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