I decided to start a separate series of blog posts for those surprisingly not-so-rare moments where I randomly stumble across something epic in the middle of nowhere in Japan. Let’s talk about going off the beaten path.
The posts will be mostly photo-based with a brief paragraph or two about how and where I find the spots. So here goes number one.
I was actually on a completely different mission to capture some photos of cherry blossoms on this day. I’d seen someone post that blossoms were blooming in Ueda City, but I knew a closer spot I might see them was Komoro Castle and Park. So I headed there first, only to be disappointed that the trees were only just beginning their bloom and not as beautiful as they would be in full bloom. Still, I enjoyed the walk.
As I was short on time, I decided not to continue to leg it to Ueda and instead thought I’d check out my backup spot, also in Komoro. I’d randomly googled “outdoor things to do in Komoro” and Shakusonji was one of the things that came up.
I didn’t exactly have high expectations, having admittedly gotten a bit over the temple scene after visiting countless ones throughout the country. Some people never seem to tire of visiting temples–I, however, am not one of those people.
But it looked like a decent spot to see a sunset and not wanting to go home just yet I set out for it anyway.
As beautiful as temples can be, they are just not my biggest thing. I’m also not a fan of crowded places as a lot of temples you find online tend to be. So you can imagine how overjoyed I was when…Continue Reading
Eli Sooker 