Tojinbo Cliffs

Tojinbo is a series of volcanically formed rock clifts that run about 1km along the central coast of Japan on the Japan Sea side.  You can take a JR train up from Nagoya or Kyoto, pass Lake Biwa and travel through Fukui prefecture to get there.  But traveling through this part of Japan during the month of January is kind of 100% guarantee of heavy snow.

 There was even heavy snow at Fukui station, which is getting back near sea level.

The cliffs are along the Japan sea and wind and rain can be really strong.  At the base of the path leading to the cliffs is a sign letting you know you are there.

 The cliffs peek around 70 feet above sea level and on this particular day waves hitting the cliffts were being forced about half way up the side.

It's really hard to get a feel for the strength of the wind and the voracity of the waves hitting the rocks, but it made standing out here difficult.

One of the signs near the cliffs told of a local legend of how a bad Buddhist priest was causing problems for the good Buddhist monk.

So the good Buddhist brought the bad monk to the edge of the cliffs and threw him over, today the ghost of the bad monk haunts this area.

But this made me question if the actions of the good monk really made them the bad monks.  They never really explain why the bad monk was so bad.