Recently I visited a the Red Dragon suspension bridge.
The bridge is in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. You drive to the top of a mountain and park the car, take a flier from the unattended booth, and approach the bridge. On either side for the bridge are the high, blue, spiked towers that look like dragon tales. After paying admission you can walk across the bridge and look through some of the glass floor panels at the river hundreds of feet below.
You could also bungee jump. If you look closely, you can see the bungee cord hanging from the middle of the bridge. When I took this picture, someone was dangling from it. The river below has a snake-dragon like shape, which is how the bridge got its name.
This image above is a metal idol of the dragon/god for which the bridge was named.
Below is a golden dragon head on the far edge of he bridge. The white pagoda below the golden dragon lights up (red, yellow, or green; your choice) for one hundred yen. It is apparently very impressive at night.
Once you cross the bridge, there are several hiking trails which (in theory) lead to the dragon village and such. I never made it far enough down the trail to find out. The stairs are surprisingly steep.
The rock below (behind the sign) is suppose to grant youth if you rub it. When my friend was rubbing it, a very old gentleman came by and told us that it wouldn't work for us because we have to be old first. When we finished our sightseeing on the bridge and watching other people jump off, we went to the souvenir shop by the parked cars. The shop was filled with the usual omiyage (food gifts) but it also had festive fall squash. Why? I do not know, but I bought one.
When we left the bridge we continued our road trip to the Fukuroda Waterfalls, which I will save for another post.
I don't know what the fox/snake statue below is, but it looked cool.
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