Tokyo 2 / Togakushi 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 // Ninja Village

A nice good-weather hike from the village of Togakushi, this map shows the hike we took to get to the Shinto shrine, Okusha (Deep Santuary)

This is part of our group starting up the trail to Okusha Jinja. Little did we suspect what this trail would be like the very next day.

The path up starts innocently enough, wide and shaded with trees that were starting to display their fall colors. A bit further in, you begin to see the cedar trees planted centuries earlier. At some point, however, you realize that these huge cedar trees didn't exist at the time the fonder of Togakure ryu Ninjutsu first walked the path 800 years earlier. My friend Jan is posing in the right photo.

Further along the path is a gate that has huge statues of dharma protectors on enclosed behind protective glass on either side. Unfortunately my photos of them were too dark to show. I was ahead of some of the others so after passing under the gate I turned back to photograph them walking towards the gate. You can barely see them.
	Here they are, taking photographs like crazy, just like I was.

Tokyo 2 / Togakushi 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 // Ninja Village