A tale of two mountains

It was the sunniest of times; it was the rainiest of times. But first it began on a cold Friday evening when I whipped to Kawaguchiko to hopefully catch some shots of Fuji at sunset with momiji (Japanese autumn maple leaves) to border it. That was a failure as a stubborn cloud would not move but that was not all the night had to offer. As Japan already worships it’s autumn leaves they way they do sakura someone, somewhere, at sometime had an absolutely brilliant plan to light them up! This made for the most amazing colours in the atmospheric evening as the Fujiyoshida bells echoed over the lake and the sun slipped over the mountains and I felt right where I wanted to be. I could gush on about the leaves at night but I’ll leaf it (Kylene, that was for you!) up to the photos! Let’s just say I spent two hours with Sheena taking photos of about 200 meters of trees! And then we went for yakiniku and it was a magnificent evening!

 

Now for the mountains. Well at least one to begin with: Takao san. I had told Rhee rain or shine when I had made plans to conquer Takao san, what I did not anticipate was swimming there. In Otsuki the rain was barely existent so like a fool I wore a skirt and leather boots and took my smallest, most compact umbrella not expecting to fear too much for the weather. I was wrong. What began as a drizzle turned into a steady rain that soaked the mountain and the many many momiji scouts and me and the temple and the shrine and me some more. But, the rain caused for an amazing misty affect that showed up really well in the photos and made the mountain seem like it existed in its own world, it was truly sublime. And in the end we opted not to hike it all but took the cable car instead.

Up atop the mountain the momiji was not yet in full blooms but patches of red and gold existed in the best places, before the temple gates and in a patch where jizo statches wore their red bibs and caps and behind these amazing statues and a stupa. The middle statue’s importance is unknown to me but the statues on either side and which were gain found bigger within the temple precinct are tengu. Tengu are demons that are the messengers for the various gods in Japan. Takao san’s mythology and history is closely tied with the tengu and thus a place of worship for them.

Within the temple it was a bit like a Buddhism amusement park, and I mean that in the most respectable way. There was a large two story gate with four guardians protecting it, two on each side, two more statues of my tengu friends, a place to wash money, a stone wheel that told fortunes, a little wood building with wooden hammers that I didn’t understand at all, a fountain to purify of course and then I neat hole in a stone wall with its purpose being that you made a wish while passing through and then think only of that as you reach a metal staff and hit it four times with a wood stick. That is at least this humble gaijin’s interpretation of the event! This was all in one little momiji bordered courtyard. Around the corner were the temple shops smelling of rain and sandalwood with the temple bell towering above and then again around that corner was the main temple where many scores of people, despite the rain, were receiving blessings and enjoying the beautiful place of worship! Up a stone staircase from this was a shrine, and while the raw wood of the temple was beautiful and sweet smelling I adore the red of a shrine and the blues and greens of the carvings within the building. Off to a corner of the shrine’s own courtyard were three little shrines, one to the Inari and it seemed most had travelled all this way for the main hall and my little momiji corner of shrines was left all for me! They were quite beautiful of course as my favourite is the little shrines! Another corner (yes there were many) and up a few more steps was another shrine building and peaking behind it was yet another little shrine in closed in autumn and fog. My shoes were soaked through and sobbed as I walked, my skirt drenched much to the dismay of a few old Japanese woman, and my fingers shivering from holding my umbrella but this place among the mist was breath taking!

 

 

 

We searched a bit for a way down, failed to find one, and opted in our wetness, to take the cable car back down the hill even as more people piled off, braving the rain to worship the temple, shrine and the magnificence of momiji. Back at the bottom I snapped a few more pictures of a little shrine in the rain and the red, a persimmon tree, which are everywhere in Japan (I had never seen one before coming here) and the way back to the train before we headed back to get dry and have a wonderful dinner of cake and pasta with Kevin.

Of course, it would be, that the next day when I had few plans the day was brilliantly blue and worse, warmer than I could remember for a while. In fact, after a brief walk to Saruhashi and a newly discovered little shrine near me, I was in such a sweat that I changed to shorts and a t-shirt before the second of the mountains came into effect for the weekend.

 

Something I have not down enough of is climb Iwadono san, the mountain that overlooks Otsuki with its brilliant colouring and dramatic cliff face. I have been noticing all week how bright the colours are and with nothing planned until evening we decided that was the target for the day. As we climbed it in Spring, all the way to the top, we were satisfied this time to stop half way at the old castle site where a building has been constructed where the castle once stood. Without meaning to we spent almost two hours just frolicking in the leaves and rolling around in the grass and napping in the sun, it was an absolutely wonderful way to spend an afternoon. And while one may not believe me, the pictures facing the sun do have a tiny cone shaped mountain in the back ground which would be the grand Fuji with my lovely town before it!

 

 In the evening I made taco salad and mash potatoes and Rhee, Kevin and I went to Kofu to celebrate the American Thanksgiving with many of the English teachers in Yamanashi. There was so much wonderful food and more English speakers in one place then I have seen since I got here! I had cheese and bacon mash potatoes, turkey, gravy, my salad, sausage rolls, KFC chicken, scallop potatoes, brownies, pumpkin pie, homemade cookies and cream and orange chocolate ice cream and melon soda for dinner and it was fantastic! And I got the chance to wear my new cute dress and check out some free English books, of wish of course I walked away with a few! It was a grand evening!

 This weekend is dedicated to the search for the two most worshiped plants in Japan: momiji AND sakura! And Wednesday is a random holiday in which if the weather is good I will go to Shosenkyo. So please give me blue skies and sun!