Incredible Trip to Yamadera From Sendai, Japan

Experience a beautiful day trip to Yamadera from Sendai to visit Yamadera Temple. It is a scenic temple located in the mountains northeast of Yamagata City. The official name of Yamadera is Risshaku-ji Temple. ‘Yamadera’ means ‘mountain temple’ in Japanese.

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[Music] [Music] this is yamadera Japan [Music] I’m starting my journey from saai train station and the journey will take about an hour all the way to yamadera [Music] [Music] he [Music] all right this is yadera station I just arrived I have the ticket the one one now okay yeah I got the uh the pass the one day pass that is available only for tourists and when you get the pass they validate the U they need to see your passport and they make sure that you have a tourist visa so let’s find out where that beautiful Scenic Temple is it’s only 4 minute walk from from here so I would assume that I just need to follow the crowd or maybe just pull up Google Maps and figure out where that Temple is so Google Map wants me to go this way and it’s located in a city called Yamagata and it takes about an hour a train ride to get uh to get there but um if you don’t buy the the one- day pass that is available only for tourists um non Japanese Travelers then you save you end up saving money because if you buy the ticket the regular train ticket you will end up paying 1,600 in but if you do pay for the for the one day pass you pay about 1,300 Yen so you save almost uh about 500 yen saving which is not bad and this seems to be a beautiful uh beautiful Bridge right here I did read about the place uh this place I read the uh The Forum Trip Advisor forum and I found 14 um reviews coming from uh The Travelers that travel to this region and they told me that there is going to it’s going to be a hike so this visit will involve a big hike about an hour climb all the way to the uh all the way to the top see Google Maps totally wrong it got me to this area but the sign says the entrance the trail starts over there no wonder why people go there but I relied on uh on Google Maps which is not correct so let’s just follow the crowd I think I think this is the entrance how are you there is no sign that uh tells you where where to go but I am just following the the the group The Crowd since Google Maps is not uh helpful it directed me to the wrong place but now I’m just uh following these people and the uh the goal the mission for this visit is to to hike all the way to the top of the mountain and maybe this is the first uh main uh main hall the temple was built in the in the 9th century in [Music] 860 and yadera means uh a Mountain Temple in Japanese so pretty much this Temple is built on a mountain on a mountain side and that’s why they call it the most uh one of the most scenic temples in uh in Japan which we will uh we will see in uh in the course of this uh video to see if it’s actually a Scenic Temple or not we have not seen it yet this is only the the entrance the first level of the uh Temple so to speak because I’m not sure where the uh the climb the the hike starts maybe just keep going this way but I enjoy what I see uh uh so far so I have a lot of water supply snacks um and all that kind of stuff to to uh to do this uh hike because the uh the hikers uh on the Forum said that uh it’s going to be a steep very very steep hike up the mountain and they they said uh take a lot of water with you and that’s what I am doing and today is a sunny clear day and I purposely waited till the weather clears because it was cloudy the last uh few days and today happens to be really beautiful weather and I said let’s let’s do let’s do this hike so the whole complex uh has uh a lot of uh Temple buildings along the way there’s some kind of noise going around because the the train station is right there that’s the train so the complex was built the temple I should say was built in the 9th century the emperor during that time in 860 ordered a Buddhist uh priest to visit this area and establish a temple and and there is a famous uh poet I think called busha visited this area and um he was uh Amazed by the uh the silence and the Serene environment that this area offers so he wrote a very very famous poet and he has a museum um somewhere here see they have this map which is useful I am right here and I’m trying to go all the way up to the top which is called godo right there and it looks like they have two Trails one goes uh this side and the other one goes that side no wonder why it’s it takes an hour to hide because it’s going to be a steep steep hike I think this is where the hike starts right here 300 Yen um to enter this area I got a ticket to start the hike only cash so no credit cards carry cash with you and U it’s going to be a really really steep uh climb and along the way I will see a lot of uh temples Temple buildings I should say and Gates beautiful Gates so let’s explore the the area together you see the the whole area is really really stunning the environment uh very Scenic environment and this is just the beginning I’m not sure what I’m going to come across uh later in the course of this uh Adventure see so far I only see Japanese uh Travelers visiting this uh Temple from other regions and I think uh the reason that I see many local Travelers Japanese Travelers because their yen currency is not doing well at the time of I’m recording this video $1 US dollar is a 158 uh Yen and it fluctuates between uh 150 to 160 and that’s why it’s it’s it’s uh expensive for the Japanese traveler travelers to travel outside Japan because of the uh declining yen currency so they end up visiting other regions of their own country and uh but for foreign Travelers such as me this is a great time to visit Japan because the uh everything is uh cheap when you convert your US dollar into Yen so the climb continues but I am already Breathing heavily I’m struggling with my breathing so I will have to take a break somewhere here look at this warning beware of monkeys and here it says uh if they appear please leave quickly and stay away from the monkeys do not go near them or take pictures because because you may be attacked by them all right good to know thank you for letting me know but I uh monkeys do not scare me as much as the bears bears are the one who scare me I was hiking in the middle of nowhere in Greenland along the icebergs and I was really really scared of the polar bears in that region and also I was hiking about 3 weeks ago here in Japan in an area full of uh bears and I captured that uh video that area you can check out that video the area is in karawa it’s a beautiful town to visit if you like an environment such as the one I am in right now that town is very Scenic as well I’m about to enter the second gate from my understanding is that I’m going to go through several Gates on my way up to to the top and I think that is the second gate if I’m not uh mistaken wow it’s beautiful it’s beautiful when it’s uh Sunny I’m glad that I uh waited for the weather to clear because the it’s not going to be good if it’s uh cloudy and [Music] raining look at the view it’s really nice so now I am I think reaching the the third gate it goes there are two Trails this way and that way so we will go there first and then we will continue the hike uh back uh back there all the way up because that’s where the the official Trail is I guess that is also a Scenic uh Temple the view behind me is really really stunning right there and it looks like uh there is another side Trail on this side I’m sure I will uh see beautiful view from there too it doesn’t hurt to to check her out yes the the view the view of the valley right there is also really nice there is no shortage of uh of pH opportunities in the in the whole area so I’m going to continue the hike but the view right there is stunning this is one of the main uh viewing platforms that um that offer such a beautiful uh photo opportunity but I am pretty sure that uh I will see better views once I go all the way up the journey is not over yet so it’s good that they have a bre area along the way and toilet as well so let’s continue the hike they have a post box here [Music] wow collection time 11:00 in the morning morning on the weekdays Saturday 11:00 and no collection times on Sundays and holidays so the postman climbs all the way up to collect the uh the mail isn’t that beautiful and the post um office surface in Japan is very very efficient it takes only two days to deliver mail from one prefecture to the to the next from uh one area one region of Japan to the next region another region only two days but back in the US it takes uh 7 to 10 days to deliver mail from one state to another which is not uh sufficient in my opinion and it’s getting worse by the day so if you are a viewer from the US let me know how long it takes for mail delivery in your area when you get mail from one state from another state so if it takes if it still takes 5 days 3 to 5 days just wait until the new system gets implemented because once the new system gets implemented it’s going to be 7 to 10 business days and I’m saying that in part because they are getting rid of the post boxes and the and the local sorting machines in the US to save money so that’s why it’s slowing down the delivery time but in Japan only two days only two days to deliver mail from one region to another remote region in uh in Japan which I found it to be very very efficient so let’s uh continue the the hike to I think this is go gido if I’m not mistaken maybe this is already good gido we will find out now so I think think this is the top Temple called godo but there is another one on the other side which means I have to hike down a little bit almost halfway to go to the other side and uh go up so the the whole area is huge and it’s been almost an hour and a half into this uh hike right now and that’s in part because I am very very slow I’m taking it slow I’m not in Rush it’s still uh it’s still 2 12:00 and I started uh early today to take advantage of the uh of the weather and also I’m trying to avoid the crowd I came in early but still it’s super crowded because it’s one of the most uh beautiful places in Japan to [Music] visit the reason the reason why you see a lot of people uh local people Japanese people is because there is something called the Golden week here in Japan and today is the last day of that golden week Friday and um and basically as I mentioned before the yen currency is uh collapsing and a lot of uh uh people local people cannot uh afford to travel outside the outside Japan due to the currency declining currency so they visit the they they end up visiting the places here in Japan and this is why it’s a little bit uh crowded somebody just told me uh I just met somebody um from uh he is from um India he works here on a contract for 2 years and he just told me that uh they are on uh something called the Golden week and that happens in the first week of I think uh May so we are in early may now and I told him then when it’s going to end he said it’s going to end uh today today is the final day but I do like the the view behind me so I said okay then that’s a good news that’s going to end today because I am going to Hokkaido and I don’t want to deal with a big crowd there so I’m assuming that that the crowd will uh subside after the uh golden week we will see so now I am uh hiking to the other side see a little bit uh loud here I’m hiking to the other side of the complex which requires another steep hike as well see this Trail for some reason is a little bit crowded so many people come here really curious to see what uh what is going on here oh I see it’s a viewing [Music] platform wow amazing view right here [Music] all right I am hiking down and uh and it’s really really cynic hike when you go down and I am trying to to find somewhere some places to to eat around this area but I’m not sure if I’m going to be successful in finding good restaurants because I’m sure that um this area is very isolated area and when it’s isolated that means the prices are a little bit inflated so since I am going back to uh saai and saai is not that far from here and that’s where I am based I’m staying in saai for one week so probably it’s a wise idea to just uh wait until I get uh to to sandai because I really like the uh the restaurants in sandai very very beautiful delicious and and cheap food right there but along the way it doesn’t hurt to at least check out the prices along the way to the train station just uh to see if there is a a good place to eat [Music] that see I found this restaurant just outside the temple entrance and the prices are not actually that bad it’s um you see complete meal for 1,200 Yen and that is not even uh $10 us which is very very cheap but the problem is that I ate a lot of uh snacks along the way on my hike on my the on the hiking trail to get more energy so I am almost full so I don’t need to eat in this beautiful town so I will wait until I get to suai station