Adventures in Sannohe

Whee, still trying to play catch up here. I have way too many pictures to go through still. Maybe I'll just have to be boring and do nothing for a while until the 'to be posted' picture folder shrinks a bit...

These are pictures I took my first week in Sannohe, when Yasuko (my supervisor) took me around to sight-see. It's a beautiful little town. :)


This is the entrance to one of the local graveyards. It's near one of the schools I work, and it's incredibly peaceful.

This is the entrance to one of three Shinto shrines in town. This one is about a 15 minute walk from my house, and it's right across the street from the grocery store I go to all the time. You walk up those stairs into the mountain forests a little before you get to the shrine itself.

This is the actual shrine. You have to wash your hands and mouth in a nearby water trough before you go up to here, where you ring the bell and say a prayer.


A gravestone in the shrine. I don't know if it's a real grave or if it's symbolic, but it was pretty so I took a picture. :)


This is another shrine, but a different type. It's not one of the three main ones in Sannohe, since it's not used for praying. This is a memorial shrine, and it was actually built in 1743. It's also right by the Japanese version of the Home Depot...just sitting there. You'll never guess who the shrine is in memory of though.....

....it's in memory of a Persian horse. These pictures are for you Sarah. :) The area I am in was historically known for breeding amazing war horses. In fact, Sannohe actually means "The Third Stable", and was originally one of seven horse breeding facilities. (By the way, you can click on any of the pictures to see a full size version if you're having problems reading the text.)

The grave marker is apparently where the Persian horse was buried.

A statue in the park. I don't know who it represents though. The park is incredibly large and beautiful, and.....

.....it has a castle in it. It's actually a replica though, the original was destroyed. So, they rebuilt it and made it into a museum.

This is a picture of the whole thing, complete with the museum and information center building.

It also has a shrine. Because really, what castle park would be complete without having a shrine too?

I believe that will do it for this post. I hope you enjoyed my town! I will have more pictures up soon, so look forward to it! ^-^