Right across my cycling path in the middle of the road was this snake. Is this an Aodaisho, a Japanese Rate Snake? If so, then it is not venomous but it still gave me a fright as I almost cycled over it.

On a walk along the Kumano Kodo in March I came across these ancient looking creatures: Japanese toads!

In May a new torii gate was installed at the Tamaigawa entrance of Tamaki Shrine.

Nowadays visitors drive up all the way,  leave their cars at the car park and walk for 20 minutes to get to Tamaki Shrine. In the old days, people would walk up all the way and there were trails and entrances on several sites of the mountain. One of them was the gate on Mount Komori in the Tamaigawa area. Over the years it got rotten and fell down.

This year a brand-new large torii gate got installed at the place where the old gate stood. It was quite a drive to get to the location by K-Truck, the car of choice of the Japanese farmers.

There was a Shinto ceremony for the opening of the gate. The place felt very spiritual…