Fujisawa-san, a fellow English teacher, called me January 1st. and suggested we drive to Kompira-san. Kompira is a large mountainside shrine in North central Shikoku. It is, along with those of Itsukushima (Miyajima) and Ise, one of Japan’s most important spiritual centers. It’s about a three hour drive from Imabari, south a bit, east and over the mountains. We were to leave at nine, and pick up Mayu, our manager, at the train station nearby. She had been visiting her mum in Anan.
After a leisurely start, Chihiro asked me to navigate, and handed me a map labelled in Japanese. ‘Where are we now?’ I asked. She waved her hand at the map, and said ‘Over here’. Chihiro and I often get into communications difficulties as, like many Japanese I have met, she does not give precise directions, and doesn’t know ordinal directions such as North, South, and so on. She also does not give precise explanations of things, perhaps because they are familiar to her…this is common, and for someone like me, frustrating. I have learned not to expect, and sometimes not to ask for such information…
Things went ok until we reached Takase, where we had to turn and take a local road through the mountains, to Kotohira. We got lost, of course, and spent 20 minutes finding the right road. By then, Chihiro did not believe we were going the right way, and so kept asking ‘Are you sure?’. It was the right way, and at 12:10 we met Mayu at the train station.
Kompira san is a fifteen minute walk west of the train station. It is a large complex of shrines which sits on the side of a mountain; the path to the main shrine contains 785 steps.
Approaching the main entrance torii is an avenue of udon restaurants, ryokan, religious art, souvenir, tradional candy and cookie shops. I'm told the cedar ball sign is an advertisement for a sake maker...It’s fascinating to wander through here. When we came back down we ate udon at one of them, in a lovely old building.
This is an Edo-era covered walkway, no longer used.
Inside the first torii is an avenue, lined with donation markers, where venders sell things under large umbrellas. There are five of them, and their families have been granted the right to do this for some 400 years. 
This is a stone lantern, called a tori, where someone has placed gravel and glass inside to create what seemed to me like a small, abstract landscape...
A big shrine partway up the path. There are a number of them, large and small.
This was the fourth day of New Years, so the crowds were starting to thin out a bit. There were perhaps a couple of thousand people at the complex. At New Years many Japanese travel to shrines to pray for health and success in the coming year. Kompira –san on New Years day must have been packed wall to wall with people.
Eventually we made it to the main shrines near the top of the mountain. There is a small (inner) shrine, I’m told, at the top of the mountain, but we weren’t up to climbing another 538 steps, so left it for some other time. That's Chihiro on the left and Mayu on the right.
The Marine Shrine is very interesting, devoted to sailors, adventurers, and soldiers. Kotohiragu is the ancient name of the Kami of this shrine. Lots of old paintings, and a boat.
There is a big Kusunoki (Camphor) tree up here, where pilgrims tie their omikuji, paper good fortune omens, to be taken care of during the year by the Kami, or Shrine gods.
They can be bought for 100 yen from priests in stalls. I didn’t buy one here, as I had already done this with Chihiro and her family at their local shrine in Temagawa.
I also discovered that the one yen coin, made of aluminum, floats! I don't seem to be the only person who has noted this, however.
After we retraced our steps to the arcade at the bottom, Chihiro suggested we have some udon. We went into a beautiful old building and ate, and I expressed my appreciation of it and the food. Chihiro responded with the mysterious statement: ‘It’s ok, but it’s not sanuki udon’. Eventually, I found out that ‘Sanuki’ udon is special, tastes better, is stronger, more genki, more chewy, the best! Sanuki is the old prefectural name for the area, now called ‘Kagawa’, and Sanuki udon is the mother of all udon. Well! So she promised to take us to a ‘Sanuki udon’ restaurant.
We drove around for about forty five minutes looking for a restaurant she remembered going to, once, and finally found it. It was unobtrusive, and not in the least swank, a working man’s place.
An interesting example of lo tech recycling: the heated, stone jar of sauce brought to the table had an improvised handle attached to it, made of multicolored, woven, recycled telephone wires! Way cool.
And guess what, she was right! The udon was chewier, and was eaten by being dipped in a sauce poured from the above jug. Up till now I’d only experienced udon served in a broth.
And super cheap, I think it cost all of 300 yen. It was delicious, so I bought some for my landlady as omiyagi.
Then we went home.
