Wonders in the Kii Peninsula

The Kii mountain range is the home of

three famous sacred places :

①　Yoshino

② Kumano are

the training places of the Shugenja
the mountain worshippers ;

Tengu are associated with Shugenja.

"Elephant catching a flying tengu"
Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Shugenja toot a big conch shell.

and ③ Mt. Koya, the headquarters of

the Shingon sect of esoteric Buddhism,
opened by Kukai.

On July 1 , 2004
UNESCO decided to include the
"holy grounds and pilgrim path in the Kii mountains"
as a World Heritage sites.
These are unique sacred places
where both Buddhism and Shintoism coexist.

The messenger of Kumano Grand Shrines is
Yatagarasu / A crow has three foot

Kumano Hongu Taisha

Each of these three
grand shrines have
their own Talisman.

Kumano Hayatama Taisha

Kumano Nachi Taisha

I hope to walk on the Kumano-Kodo, pilgrimage routes

of a mossed stone pavement among a grove of cedar and cypress.
It's an ascetic training for us.

And I hope to encounter Ishibotoke

that stand still on the roadside, and
to get the three talismans of
Kumano Grand Shrines .

Another wonder in the Kii Peninsula,

in Wakayama Prefecture
A lovely calico cat named Tama
had a cozy seat as a station master.

As she invited a lot of people and enormous fortune

into a ghost station of local line.

So she has assumed the position of executive officer
of Wakayama electric railroad company Jan. 3 , 2010.

Moreover, thanks to "Cats"　
a fantastic cat-shaped station building is going to be built.

Joke
Her function is to sit and be admired.
(Georgina Strickland Gates)

It's really a cat's house. -- we just pay the mortgage.
(me too! LOL)

10 Million Dollar Cat