Heaven and Hell

11/5/2005, Ajimu, Kyushu

Heaven and Hell: not just a party in Currier House.

Heaven and Hell is a ~500 year old Buddhist temple near Ajimu, on Kyushu, the large island south of Honshu. There is a network of caves beneath the shrine. It is filled with statues. 60-watt light bulbs strung together with extension cords are probably the most recent addition to the caves, and judging by the spider webs and wear, they have been around for tens of years.

We wandered around a bit below the caves, and I paused for a picture near an Oni, or Japanese devil, statue. "He probably thinks that I'm mocking him, but I'm not," I thought as I posed next to him, avoiding a nearby puddle of water. My friend Justin took my picture.


You'll notice that I've lost my focus on the camera a bit. I had just seen some movement out of the corner of my eye. Some terrifying movement. I scamper across the room, crouching low to avoid it -- a huge centipede on the ceiling. I just know it will fall into my shirt and attack me (c.f. jellyfish story in Australia, below). "They're poisionious," Justin says, backing away. (I apologize that in my closeup of the beast I was not able to place my thumb to give scale to the image -- I think my reasoning on this point is obvious)

As Justin tries to talk me under the hideous, poisionious, creature, I almost crawl across the room. Betsy returns from another chamber, nonplussed. We shreik at her -- don't come in! Justin keeps trying to talk me forward.

In a moment, everything changes. Justin turns, and notices four of the Devils' creatures next to his head. We scream and exit the cave.

The rest of the temple was pleasant. A verticle climb up a rock shaft with a long chain for support, and some lovely statues. The view from the top overlooked beautiful mountains, haizy in the distance.














Later in the day, we visited a lovely waterfall. There were no powerlines in view, and it was isolated -- which in Japan, means that we saw only a handfull of other people.