Konpira-san

It was a perfectly overcast day. Cool enough to climb the 800 steps to the main shrine and approximately 500-600 more to the very top. To learn more about Konpira, the Japanese god, and more about Kotohira, the town where this attraction lies, check out these sites:

Shikoku Web Site

Japan National Tourist Organization

We met a group of nice Japanese men in a souviner shop in Kotohira, a town about 15 minutes away from Marugame where we lived.

Here is Mike on some of the stairs leading up to the main shrine.

Samurai statue

View of the Sanuki plain from the steps leading up to the inner shrine.

One of the shops along the side. I'm digging the Japanese style roof.

Mike on some of the stairs leading up to the shrine.
There behind him is an art museum that supposedly is only open once every 100 years. Isn't that crazy? It was open the day we decided to hike up the stairs of Konpira-san, but we didn't go in!!

If you want to worship at the shrine, but have a hard time climbing the steep stairs for whatever reason, you can pay some men to haul you up in one of these "taxis."

Kotohira town.

Me on some of the beginning stairs.