Yakuoin Onsenji Temple: When Maples lead to Abandoned Hotels

My experience of anything horror related started and immediately ended with The Shining. Haunted houses, ghost hunts and anything remotely close, I avoid like the plague. This place took us by surprise, and it was not the “nice” type. Ten days in on our chase of the Momiji (aka Japanese Maple) trail took us to countryside Japan. Our love of onsen (Japanese hot springs) and craving to be away from pushy international tourist brought us to Yamashiro Onsen.

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A well-known old onsen town for locals, this area also has some of the best mountain views on Fall foliage. Using my embarrassingly broken Japanese (outside of cities, most rural areas do not speak English), we managed to find out there’s a scenic lookout which we can access via a local temple.

Yakuoin Onsenji Temple (薬王院温泉寺)

Legend has it, this temple’s founder Gyoki came across a scared three-legged bird taking a bath in the local springs on his journey to climb mount Haku. Visitors will find the eleven-faced Kannon Bosatsu statue here. Worshippers believe this temple protects the hot springs as well as their healing properties. Back at the onsen, we were told to follow the one main path for Fall foliage. This led us through the scattered smaller temple buildings to the back of Yakuoin Onsenji temple grounds. Awaiting us was the standard temple stone steps bracketed by shrubs and trees, little did we know the path at the end will turn into moss-covered stones with hiragana alphabet inscription (we later found out this was called the A-I-U-E-O path).

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At this point we were presented two life choices; follow one path cutting straight through the towering green trees then laborious steps to climb uphill or explore the slightly uneven but still flat trail to the right which lead to smaller wood with stone temple-like buildings. Naturally, being the lazy afternoon explorers we are, option two was a no brainer. With each step, the trees get taller, the moss builds thicker, and the temple structures starts to get more overgrown and decomposed. Just as our surroundings was starting to get uncomfortable, we found ourselves at the top of a shrine.

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Hatori Shrine (服部神社)

Named after a more modern derivative of the Japanese term hataori (to weave), Hatori shrine honours the god of weaving. The term “weaving” here, has been expanded to include social weaving (aka networking) in regards to both personal and professional terms. If traditional music, bonfires and dance celebrations are of your interest, locals hold an annual Yamashiro Daidengaku Festival celebrating traditional Dengaku dance of Shinto religion. For visitors coming in from the main entrance, you will find the shrine at the end a large stone torii gate. We approached unknowingly from the back directly to the main shrine. This shorter-than-your-average-human height shrine has a small tunnel of red torii gates leading in front of it. If you are looking to make better social connections, you can pray here.

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Up the Mountain Trail.

At this point, we realised we’d chosen the wrong path for our foliage hunt, and reluctantly retraced our steps back to those climbing stone-bordered dirt steps we tried to avoid. As we made our way through the shadowing trees, the steps disappeared slowly into fallen foliage. Patchy grass starts to overtake the final traces of our path until it completely swallows the remaining stones, and we stand at a clearing. The clearing was slightly open with half-dead looking trees and lots of shrubs. Standing there we couldn’t help but think how this makes a perfect setting for a murder scene.

The creepy scale escalates as we see a deserted pavilion with a few moss-covered headstones to our left. Just as panic was about to set in, we spot a vehicle accessible road not too further up. Looking back, we approached that road with more enthusiasm than anyone should have for a road (don’t judge, you would too if you were there). Unfortunately for us, the way to see Fall foliage view was still a climb away.

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A new set of safe-looking, slightly mossy, concrete steps now awaits our ascend. Breathing a sigh of relief, we started on these unsuspecting steps too preoccupied with celebrating our lucky escape than we should have been. Suddenly out of the corner of our eyes, we saw a waist-height house-like headstone. Upon closer inspection, there’s a monk-like statue inside. Nothing too creepy right? That is what we thought until we realised every five steps we take we come across one of these sitting to our right or left.

Our path is once again starting to have foliage and shrubs beginning to grown inwards making it hard not to brush against as you walk. Now my mind starts to flash those anime scenes where the bad guys take the good guys to some creepy temple and use them as a human sacrifice (not helping I know). Just as we considered turning back, a sign which says something and “scenic lookout” in Japanese (I can only understand some Japanese characters) motivates us to advance forward. After what felt like forever, we made it out of the overhanging trees onto a big slab of flat concrete ground. What greeted us next was not what we expected.

The Abandon Hotel.

Haunted hotels are popular backdrops to horror stories (The Shining, remember?). Now imagine what it feels like to see a large, two-storey white building with creepy looking vines starting to wrap around it (by some sick sense of humour the leaves were also blood red). Vertical, black watermarks run like drool seeping down the walls. The windows have shards of broken glass with a glimpse of moth-eaten white curtains. A few more steps forward, two-storey becomes one, and the almost-to-floor windows are now all barred like a prison cell. Standing out amongst the windows is a dark opening in the wall (this could have been for a sliding glass door). If you peak from the outside, debris and boxes are scattered into the building until it’s slowly swallowed by empty pitch blackness.

Further forward, what looks like the grand lobby entrance has grass overgrown on the roof, and weeds burst through cracks in the concrete floor. For any ghost lovers and daredevil explorers, the advice is don’t – this place is alarmed, and occasionally the local council will have security guards doing checkup rounds. Luckily for us, the path of the outlook veered to the right of all this creepiness.

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Sazaedo Observation Deck (さざえ堂)

A short walk through a tree-lined path took us to some wood bracketed dirt steps and, finally, to the observation deck. This weather-worn wooden tower offers a 360-degree view of the hot spring towns below. Surrounding all this is endless stretches of low mountain ranges spot painted in all variants of gold, orange and red. Here you will finally realise why so many great poets and painters choose to wax lyrical and obsessively capture these Autumn scenes.

The observation deck is stripped-back in architectural appearance and facilities, if you are expecting your usual English tourist explanation boards here, you will be disappointed. Up in the top deck, there are only small Japanese signages nailed to the outer roof beams to help you identify the direction and the name of the mountain ranges you are facing.

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Sunset and The Way Back Down

Initially, we were hoping to see the sunset among the colourful mountains. However, from the ways we broke out in goosebumps, we decided against it. It was creepy enough that there was no one around with only the occasional cries of crows (perfect murder scene-setting, look up ‘The Birds’ movie). On this particular day, the sun started to set before it hit 4 pm, and when it began its descend, it went quick.

We would have started on our return journey earlier if we weren’t freaking out over a stranger with a garden rake walking pass the observatory tower. At this point, our hyperactive imagination created all sorts of ways we could be murdered out here and never be found (not helping, I know). By the time this poor innocent man walked out of our vision, the sun had hidden half behind the mountains. So the only option we had was to (power) walk back.

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Curiosity and our unwillingness to admit how chicken we were, had us take one last shaking look at the hotel. Just as we were about to take a breath of relief for freaking out over nothing, a sudden gust of wind shook the white curtains on a second-floor window and the sound of something creaking (most likely a tree) had us comically running for the forest path back down. The lower our descend into the mountain path, the darker things became. The once stick-like tree shadows have grown to be claw-like to blanket everything in a dark veil. Trying not to scream our heads off, we tried to outrun the ever-growing darkness.

Let’s say I have never been so happy to see the backend of a temple building before. By the time we reached the garden grounds of Yakuoin Osenji Temple, I’ve lost the number of times I had prayed not to be murdered by a local ghost or to trip and smash my nose in on those steps. By the time we made it out of the temple, the local streets were shining to reveal a romantic night scene of this old hot spring village.

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In hindsight, minus the creepy hotel, the view at the observation deck is impressive to see in Autumn. I wouldn’t mind sitting up there and doing a bit of painting. As for the temple access path, I would recommend climbing it while the sun is high in the sky. We later found out there is a narrow and winding driving path up to where the abandoned hotel, so the creepy temple path isn’t a must if you want to see the view (if only we knew). Just be careful while driving up and down the mountain side.

If you are looking for where to find some of the best Maple foliage spots in Japan you can find them here.