Late last Summer I received an e-mail from a reader of this site who had seen a lot of my posts about sights in the Izu area of Shizuoka Prefecture. He wanted information on a very interesting heritage museum I’d never heard of, and one that the tourist information centre in Atami claims doesn’t exist.

The pagoda, which originally opened in 1970 and sits atop a mountain, supposedly features all sorts of military stuff with a basement containing some exhibits relating to history’s most controversial figures like Stalin, Nietzsche, Marx, Napoleon, Hitler and some far-right Japanese nationalists. I was keen to investigate but had to bide my time.

That time finally came at the start of this year when I had a day to myself and thought I could combine the uncertainty of being able to see that museum with a couple of other sights, one of which was a white pagoda I’d noticed when passing through Atami on train. Along with the far more famous and prominent Atami-jo Castle, it is the other noticable landmark atop the mountains.

I took the train up the east coast of the Izu Peninsula towards Atami but disembarked one stop earlier at Kinomiya station. It was a very steep (and long!) walk uphill from there to what is known as Relics Pagoda (1993-27 Atami, Shizuoka-ken) but thankfully I was rewarded with some pretty good views along the way.

After nearly an hour on foot, a sizeable Buddha statue to the side of the road came into view a short distance away from my destination. I never get tired of such sights whatever form they’re in.

There were a couple of bright yellow lion statues keeping guard just before the road split but they both led to the pagoda which was located to the rear of a resort hotel.

More yellow vividness soon followed in the form of this buddha statue (below) which was slighly bigger than the one I’d seen minutes before.

Relics Pagoda was beside it and quite an impressive sight. Whether it was worth my efforts in getting there is questionable for many but I do enjoy going to such places which are rarely featured elsewhere on the internet.

The pagoda contained golden statues on three of the sides and helped to make the whole thing more impressive than I thought it would be.

The next place was a stone’s throw away further down the path. The steps leading up to the temple hall took me to a lawn area displaying a kannon statue which had been hidden from view until then.

A wonderful seven metre tall white kannon statue with a happy and gentle face was waiting for me at the top.

It was built in May 1988 to respect the aged and holds a jewel against the chest which I tried to replicate with the only thing I had on me; an orange!

After that it was time for another one hour walk to see what I could see of this mysterious heritage museum. My expectations were certainly low but one always lives in hope of getting lucky in some way. There were some other points of interest along the way such as this house on stilts.

The winding road took me further up the mountain and as I approached the next sight I looked back and could see the white pagoda I’d recently left behind.

Over the years I’ve made a fair amount of effort to see only the exterior of some religious cult buildings so the presence of Sukyo Mahikari was a most welcome sight.

As I approached the gates of the property I’d made such efforts to see, I began to get a bit nervous and there was something of an eerie feeling about the area as I hadn’t seen a person in ages. That didn’t change at all and the only thing I came across was a locked black gate.

Another locked gate didn’t say anything more than the old entrance price of 1000 yen. One can only hope that these gates do reopen for business again one day but with the owner getting on a bit it seems quite unlikely I’m afraid.

With such low expectations I can’t say I was too surprised that it resulted in nothing but I still enjoyed the adventure and some of the splendid coastal views.

My journey certainly didn’t end there though as I had to get back to civilisation. Unfortunately for my already-tired legs it was an 80 minute walk to Izu-Taga station. As I descended the mountain I soon forgot all about the road to nowhere. That was until I looked up and could see the five-storey pagoda atop the mountain. It does look really cool and I would’ve been content (on this occasion) to just see the exterior up close without even going inside.

The road eventually led me down to Nagahama Seaside Park which is a place I’ve been a few times now. On a sunny day it is a really nice beach to visit in the northern part of Izu.

Izu-Taga station was my route out of the area on what had been a long afternoon of walking. My body was in a bit of pain the following day but at least I could rest easier  knowing that I had at least tried to find out what was in store at Atami’s most mysterious hilltop lair.

Click here to read ‘Visiting All Of The Beaches On The North-Eastern Coast Of Izu’

Click here to read ‘Coastal Adventures In Izu: Seaside Parks, Footbaths, Marine Towns, Lakes, Mountains & Big Ramen!’

Click here to read ‘An Afternoon In Atami’

Click here to read ‘A Weekend Away With The Family In Atami’