Yesterday, my wife asked me "where is hebinma?" as she looked at a photo on her smart phone's social networking site.
I looked and saw a dense forest and a brick archway.
I looked it up on the Internet and found it to be "Snake Swamp Park.
Is it far from your house?" I looked it up on Google Maps and responded, "It's about an hour's walk.
She wanted to go there, so we decided to go out, even though it was a little far.
I thought it might be a swamp full of snakes, but in fact, it seems to mean a swamp as long and narrow as a snake.
On the way, there were two shrines. One is Yasaka Shrine, which is a branch of Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto. The other is Hoshimiya Shrine, which is said to have existed for as long as 1098 years, since it was enshrined in 924 (the 2nd year of Extension) after being dispatched from Yatsushiro County in Higo Province.
The deity enshrined is Amenonakanonushi no Mikoto, the first deity to appear in the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) and the god of the entire universe. Formerly called Hoshidaimyojin, the shrine has been called Hoshimiya Shrine since 1952.
The first person to donate a shrine building was Taira no Sadamori, in 941. This was the year after Sadamori suppressed the rebellion of Taira no Masakado.
Both Yasaka Shrine and Hoshimiya Shrine stand at either end of Wakashiba-juku, an old Mito Kaido road, but they are not far from my house, so it is a good idea to visit them occasionally.
Snake Swamp Park is located in a residential area, but it was truly a park embracing a dense forest.
Here I took many photos for my wife's facebook as requested.
In the end, we walked for four hours, a distance of about 12 km, which was a good workout.
