Osorezan is most famous for itako, blind shaman women who conduct private conferences in which they communicate with the spirits of the dead. Most operate out of the temples here, but I was lucky enough to see one in the open air and snap some pictures of her in action. There was a line of people waiting for an audience - after all, it WAS the obon season when ancestors supposedly come back home for a visit. Me, I cycled back to the station at Shimokita and boarded an overnight train for MY home. By next morning I was speeding along Lake Biwa on the way back to Kobe.

Osorezan is at the very top of Honshu, but it’s not the northernmost point. That honor goes to Shiriya-zaki (Cape Shiriya), a short bicycle ride up from the exit from the mystical mountain; the picture you see here was taken on another trip to the area. The coastline is lovely but the weather can be a bit deceptive. This is almost all the way to the lighthouse at the cape; by the time I’d gotten to the cape, the fog had rolled in and the white lighthouse was practically invisible.