The slope leading up to the Iwaya-ji is indeed steep, as the landlord of the mountain lodge Muraya said. It’s not the steepness of the slope that’s the problem, but rather the fact that it’s frozen… If there’re no handrails on both sides, it would be impossible to go up, needless to say to go down…

The main temple of Iwaya-ji is built against a large rock with a bumpy hole in the middle, reminding me of Nageire-do in Tottori. Also, Taishi-do is impressive with its intricately shaped wooden structure. Iwaya-ji is so impressive that I couldn’t help but gaze at it for a while. After reciting the sutra, I still wanted to take a closer look at the temple.

On the way back to Haccho-zaka Japanese inn, I went down to the river from Furuiwaya-sou, where I could see a lot of icicles. I felt lucky to see such a great nature.