Tachikue Gorge or Tachikuekyo is outside Izumo in Shimane Prefecture. It is one of many spectacular gorges that mark this rugged and rocky coastal area, created by Japan's volcanic origins like 20 million years ago.
Tachikuekyo's two kilometer walking path is directly by the Gorge, a welcome and continuously looming companion at about 100 to 200 meters. Rubber necking - a continual head turning in all directions - is a requirement to efficiently absorb all the gorgeous varied scenery.
There are the stark granite outcrops, striated cliff faces, sharp angled stone spires and steeples, standing guard like sentinels over the Gorge's serene Kandogawa River. Some of the rock formations, each differently shaped and carved, protrude onto the path, necessitating some manoeuvring around.
Topping all this gorge scenery are largely primeval forests, and although wild and untidy, are a gentle contrast to the dramatic rocky and rugged gorge faces.
A definite rubber necking spot is an encounter with 1500 stone jizo of every conceivable shape and size. They are all over, high and low, in clusters, individually scattered, perched in miniscule caves. Some line up the mountain slope in tiers, some so old they are a sad rubble of forgotten sanctity. Just when you think there can't be any more of them, there they are again in a turn off along the path. They crouch around a mossy waterfall quite hidden by a dense ancient forest.
The jizo are the remnants of the region's early association with Shugendo sect mountain ascetics. There is a shrine, Reikoji, led to by very mouldy steep and narrow granite steps, noticeable by giant straw sandals hanging at the front. Its origins as with the jizo is said to be in 828.
Walking to the end of the trail brings you to small residences and a recreation stop. The flat tameness of this area can be a bit anti-climatic after the drama and rubber necking of the walk.
The bus ride to and fro Tachikuekyo is a build up to the Gorge. The bus drivers are the best, skillful and careful, so we can enjoy the mountain backdrops, ravines and valleys, steep curved corners, with our hearts out of our mouths.
