Tomb Raider

Back when we first arrived and I was looking for local things to do and see I found mention of some burial mounds nearby.  I enthusiastically thought "Oh, wow, burial mounds-- that'll be neat to go see!".  Shortly thereafter I realized that they were very close to our house and, in fact, were right across the street from the mall.

Cut to two years later.  Last Thursday, I think it was, I wearily thought "Geez, I've got to come up with something to get us out of the house this afternoon.  Maybe I'll go see if there is actually anything at those hills across from the mall."

So, <ahem> here goes:

These two burial mounds date from about the 5th century AD.  They're called "kofun" and the period they are from is sometimes called the Kofun Period because many of these types of mounds were built then.  The Kofun period is the earliest recorded era in the history of Japan. 

These particular mounds are called the Tenjin'yama and according to Wikipedia some terracotta figurines (called haniwa) were found here and are the only haniwa to be designated as national treasures. 

The mounds are right in the middle of a commercial area.  Here is one....

exciting, no?



 And standing in the same spot (a 7Eleven parking lot) but turned the opposite direction...

squint and you can see a McDonalds

There was a sign and a little statue but the sign was faded and all in Japanese.



it probably says "Why are you standing here looking at these dumb hills when
you could be at the mall with everyone else?"

I couldn't find an easy way to climb them, although now that I think of it, that might've been rude.  They're surrounded by rice paddies and ditches that I wasn't brave enough to jump with a baby strapped to my chest.

yep, it's a hill alright

Here's the other one after I drove around and around it trying to see if there was any identifiable path to the top.  There was not.

they do stand out because they are tree covered. 
concrete or rice paddy is the groundcover of choice here.

So, another local landmark checked off the list.  Better late than never, right?