Fire on the mountain

So here I am, at Nabeiwaso Ryokan, 3.5km beyond the top of the mountain. Shozenji conquered, I feel much like I can do anything. This is fortuitous, considering I have 25km to walk tomorrow. Granted it is mostly downhill, following a river, nearly from it's headwaters, but most of it is on roads, a bit tough on the feet when wearing 50lbs. on your back.

I left Fujii-dera (#11) at about 10:30 this morning, and stopped for a brief lunch at an unnumbered temple in the middle of the mountains. It was abandoned (for the season?) but thankfully had a water keg fed by a hose presumably from a spring somewhere above. There was a hut with very spare mats for travelers who would not make it to 12 in one day's trek. I ate in the sun on the front step. It was cold once I stopped huffing up the hill!

After lunch, the trail went straight up over one mountain, then deep into a valley, and again right back up the next to the the temple. At the crest of the first peak, as I was concentrating on my footholds, I finally looked up to find a set of ancient stone steps leading up to a superhuman-sized statue of the Daishi as the original henro, backed by the most enormous tree I have ever seen (barring one that dropped my jaw while walking between #9 and #10, which had 5-inch-square stone posts holding up its massive limbs), so very many times bigger than all the other trees here. It actually was the first one I believed to be true to the ubiquitous legend, "the Daishi planted it!" (He lived in the 8th century....) It also made me realize that most of this cedar forest was at least second generation; this mountain must have been clear cut at some point in relatively recent history, like much of our northeast woods, where virgin forest is so rare... It was so hard going down into the next valley, knowing I was giving up hard-earned elevation just to have to grunt my way back up the other side. That last slope was the hardest, steepest, and most remote part, and I had to stop every hundred feet or so to gasp for breath and wait for my heart to stop pounding in my ears and eyes. When I stopped, I noticed my vision was a little swimmy, as if eyes had adjusted to the scenery in front of my feet moving, moving, and so when not moving, things actually appeared to be moving away from me... I hoped I was not hallucinating from dehydration - might have been close! I lost 2kg (has to be water) from yesterday! I am officially 10 pounds lighter than the low end of my usual weight before I left home. I don't know where it came from!

I finally got up to the temple compound about 4pm... first thing I saw was the parking lot from which all the sane people begin, then walked the last 200 meters, and up the stone steps to the temple itself. Even with the sound of chainsaws in the distance, log trucks on the roads below, and the construction (restoration?) of a new temple building next to the Hondo (Main Hall), the place still had such a sense of peace, and after ringing the bell at the Hondo altar, and standing with eyes closed for a few moments, I could feel the history and the forest seeping into my consciousness. The story that gave this place its name, the Burning Mountain, has the Daishi extinguishing the flames of an awful dragon and binding him for eternity into a cave nearby. One writer reported that scholars think it was a fancy way of explaining how Shingon Buddhism had overcome a local Shinto cult. I wonder if it wasn't an allegory for something simpler. If indeed Kukai walked here seeking his salvation, couldn't it be that he experienced something like what I was feeling? That on the way up, all was burning. My mind, my body, every muscle on fire, my thoughts churning... and now, standing here, feeling the wind brush away the flush from my face, the remoteness stilling my mind, feeling it all just fall away down the steep sides of this mountain... It felt like the ultimate quenching of some crazy burning thirst. The dissolution of all of the questions I've been asking... the smoothing of all the anxiety, knowing it was all going to be resolved in beautiful order. I stood there for a long time before going to get my nokyo-cho stamped.

On the way down to the ryokan, it was so steep it was easier to jog at points... My mood was conducive to the skipping along anyway. Now, sitting here in my room after a great steambath and really good meal, I am still riding the endorphin wave that came from reaching the top, reaching a really tough goal, conquering the mountain, in the best mood I've been in since starting to walk almost a week ago.

Time to sleep, now... sore, tired, and so far to go tomorrow... breakfast is at 6:30, and I'll start walking soon after, on my way to #13....

Images from Shozen-ji will haunt my dreams: golden eagle sweeping back and forth in the air below me... deep forest shadows, green glowing bamboo groves...

Goodnight....

Day One and then some...

Realizing there is still a huge gap between Wakayama and Temple 11!!! Just to fill in some blanks, here's a brief version...

I left Wakayama by ferry on my birthday, Friday the 10th. Crossing the Seto Inland Sea took a little more than 2 hours, and then, what was supposed to be a 20 minute walk from the ferry terminal to the central train station of Tokushima, Shikoku, took even longer than that. By the time I finally got downtown, I was persuaded to take a room in the city because it was far too late in the afternoon to go off to Temple 1 and begin walking. As it turned out, I spent 3 nights at the Hotel Clement (nice digs for cheaper than a Best Western!), and spent the time getting through all the issues I had about being without a real plan, being 31, being alone, etc. etc... It was harder than you might think to take that final step and begin in an entirely new mode. On the second day, I took a train over to Ryozen-ji (Temple 1) and bought all the henro gear to outfit myself for the journey: the Nokyo-cho (arguably the most important - the book in which you receive a stamp for each temple you visit - this becomes your record of the entire pilgrimage), the Kongo-tsue (walking stick with a bell - this symbolizes the Daishi himself, as he is said to accompany each henro on the trail), the funny hat (which in Japanese is actually called an umbrella - haha!), the sash, the robe, and prayer beads. I also stocked up on incense, which is supposed to be offered at each temple, and the all-important fudo, or nameslips. These are in some ways the heart of the pilgrimage; each one bears a short sutra to call on the Daishi's spirit, and you include your wish or prayer, your home, and your name, then leave one at every temple's Hondo (Main Hall) and Daishi-do as a legacy of your offering and focal point for your wish. I have so far been filling mine with wishes for practical things, for instance, for learning the way of the henro, for finding out what Buddhism means to me, for determination, for stamina, for direction... for quick healing of pain! I think of these less as prayers and more as meditations... It's tough to describe how I, very pragmatic in approach to religions in general, am trying to find a way to work within this esoteric paradigm. I find myself standing at an altar, next to folks earnest in prayer or chanting, I have my hands together, I am bowing to an image of Dainichi or Yakushi Nyorai (different incarnations of the Buddha) or even Kobo Daishi, the patron saint of Shingon Buddhism and this very pilgrimage, and I am wondering what on earth I am doing... Am I a henro or a Preten-ro, as a fellow traveler wrote on his website...? I have ended up deciding that while I am not about to jump in and start beseeching statues for my salvation, I do find a spiritual component to this journey, and maybe I feel that my actions at the altar, as a personal meditation of sorts, will help me focus on emulating the qualities that these saints and deities immortalize, might bring me closer to their nature, and to fulfilling my own wishes, rather than seeking grace from a sculpture.

And so it goes. Temple 1, 2, and 3 on the first day, Monday the 13th. I stayed at the Bandou Ryokan on the first night, eating cheap from a nearby grocery store. I think I was the only guest in the inn. The second day covered temples 4, 5 and 6 - I wanted to go to 7 where there was supposedly an onsen (hot spring) nearby, but they were booked, so I stayed at Temple 6, Anraku-ji, the Temple of Everlasting Joy. They had their own very nice onsen bath right in the temple dormitory - very nice! Dinner, breakfast, a private service and a chance to touch the Yakushi Nyorai, with the blessed mitten as a souvenir were all included in the ¥6500 lodging fee. Best deal yet!

The following day (the 15th?) I hit number 7 early in the morning, then on to 8 up in the hills, 9 back on the plain, 10, nestled way up in a valley, and then nearly back tracking to make my way down the flood-wasteland of the Yoshino River's levee toward Kamojima at the bottom of the mountain. Quite a walk. The last leg of the day was the bridge that carried me across the massive riverbed into Kamojima itself. I counted my steps, and got to 1273 upon hitting solid ground on the other side!

This brings it about up to speed... for more about Kamojima, look to the bit of intro in the previous post... Best thing about it was borrowing a bike from the ryokan and riding all over town - must have covered more distance in two hours just exploring the town than I had in 3 days walking... I felt like I was traveling at light speed! Wheeeee!

some catching up...

Today I am waiting out the rain before I begin the trek up to #12, Shozanji. It will be a long day, and I am still entirely spent from yesterday's push to make it to "base camp" at #11: Fujii-dera, Temple of Wisteria. I am not staying at the temple proper, but had originally planned on a spot halfway between 10 & 11, a rural ryokan called Kane Moon, or something phonetically similar... I ended up opting for a place closer to Fujii-dera, in the town of Kamojima, a business hotel called ACCESS. The place was brand new, and very modern, and not bad at only ¥5500, with free breakfast, free coffee anytime, and a web-surfing computer for free use in the lobby. I ended up finding my own connection thanks to the HWL2A, even if low bandwidth and slightly temperamental... Too bad I fell asleep too early to make much use of it!

I decided to stay another night, but they were booked, so I've moved about a mile up the road to the Ryokan Yoshino (the name of the massive river that creates this flood plain), a bit closer to the temple. Now I'm just around the corner, so my first accomplishment will come early in the morning! (Nice when you don't have to walk for 2 hours for the gratification of reaching the next temple!) But I won't reach 12 until much much later in the day: it is 12.9km from #11, and all in the mountains. And we aren't talking rolling hills, these are steep, rugged, volcanic formations, with lots of channels and valleys, so it will be a lot of up and a considerable amount of down. Which means that by the time i get there, I might have covered the elevation twice! Ugh.

I guess I will be missing the wisteria season, but that's fine with me; I'm glad to be traveling now while its still cool, no bugs, not too many people on the trail. And if it's this difficult to make hotel reservations now, I can only imagine what it must be like in the height of the henro season. I've already had to change plans twice because the place I wanted to stay was booked. It tends to throw a wrench into my well-rehearsed questions and answers when I'm told over the phone that there isn't any room. Usually it ends up just being a bunch of awkward pauses until they get that I don't understand, and say in simple terms: Dekimasen! Or literally: Can't do it. But surprisingly, I am picking up a lot of things I just didn't know before, even without explicit explanation. Now I can understand the difference between a night with 2 meals, and just a simple stay-over, and I know how to ask for another night in the same room. You can't imagine how much anxiety these simple things caused the first couple of days!

So between the last time I posted, and now, I've covered some real distance. The night I spent in the youth hostel in Nara, for starters, was quite an experience. The place was recommended highly, and I could see why - for a hostel it was in great shape, and clean, and the staff were very friendly. Even my bed was comfy! But the thing about hostels: the roommates.... I shared my room with a 73 year old lady who claimed to have traveled the world in her better days. I hoped we'd have a lot to talk about, she wanting to brush up on her english vocab, and me, working on my japanese... But after we got talking, it became clear that there were some pieces missing. It got really weird when she started muttering and cackling and (!!!) throwing things at me! I got assailed with a wadded up shopping bag, and some random paper trash... I really couldn't figure it out, but she didn't seem angry - she seemed just thrilled to tears with my reaction... I was so confused, and she just kept laughing and laughing, until finally I got up to leave. "Doko iku no?" Where you goin'? she asked me. I muttered I might have a bath, and ran out.

After a cigarette in the dining hall to cool off, I went to the public bath up the hall. Japanese style, where you sit on a stool and shower/bathe, and then hop in the tub with everyone else. When I got there, I was shocked at two things: 1, how COLD it was in there - you'd think they were using it as a walk-in cooler! And 2, my bathing buddy. The old coot had beat me to it. She was just getting in the tub when I came in. I, however, was not about to appear squeamish, and so, freezing my buns off, I grabbed a stool and pulled up to one of the faucets. I had a hell of a time getting any hot water or any pressure, and she just laughed and laughed at my futile efforts. When I thought it couldn't get any worse, she started using her wash bucket to shovel water at me from the tub. Just flinging it at me. I was at such a loss as to what on earth to do. "Onegai shimasu!!!" (If you please!!) didn't seem to do any good. Eventually I lost hold of my manners, and just yelled "DAMEDESU!" which is a not very careful nor polite way to let someone know that something is just plain wrong. She just cackled and started mocking me in this childish singsong voice - dame! hahaha, dame! She was going wild with glee, splashing and throwing water at me, and squealing with delight. Finally, I realized that the reason I couldn't get any pressure was that she had the main faucet in the tub going full blast, which was only necessary because she was emptying the tub as fast as it was filling. I somehow managed to convince her to turn it off, and got halfway through my shampoo and conditioner routine before she cranked it back on again. Eventually, I gave up, and just got into the damn tub, curled up in the fetal position, and shut my eyes. Ignoring her seemed to work at least a little. She only got in and out of the tub 2 or 3 more times, and I wondered if she wasn't trying to show me up in that the showers worked just fine for her... I just sat still and didn't say a word, until she finally left and I had all of 5 minutes to myself before the attendant was knocking and telling me it was time to close the bath for the night.

After I left the bath I went back to the dining room for another cigarette (I don't usually smoke so much!) and there was my new buddy, having a bite to eat, along with a young guy on vacation from school. They were talking a bit, commenting on the tv and whatnot, and she acted for all the world like the sweetest most with-it grandma in all the world! I couldn't believe that the crazy bit was just an act for me!!! She looked at me with a little twinkle in her evil eye, and went on chatting pleasantly about the weather with Kato-san. I made it upstairs before her, and put everything I had in my bunk and closed the curtain. I was not coming out, I was not going to talk, I was going to have some peace if it killed me. I left as early in the morning as I could!

After a first night like that, it's a wonder I didn't turn right around! I guess it's a good thing I don't have any place to stay in Tokyo, or I might not have made it this far...

So this brings us to Thursday, the 9th... I spent the entire morning on trains, transferring here and there, on my way to Koya-san. Actually, I fell asleep on the train out of Nara, and as it was an express to Osaka, I ended up riding the whole of the Osaka loop line to get back to my station... I suppose if you only had a half hour, it is not a bad way to see Osaka!

As the train headed up into the hills, it started to snow. Once we were up on the high ridges, every tree was frosted in white, and the ravines dropped away from the very side of the tracks. It was just stunning, but my pictures can't do it justice. The tracks twisted in and out of steep valleys and around the ridges so slowly that it added a real suspense to the ride. The track was only one lane wide, unlike most that I've seen here, and so we even had to wait for about 10 minutes at one station for a train coming down the mountain to pass us. After what seemed like forever, we reached the bottom of the cable car. Now, this is not like what we think of a cable car at home, no gondola or anything like that. It is a sort of trolley car built like a set of stairs, and it sits on a track with a 45 degree angle, with a 4-inch diameter cable that hauls it to the top of the track. If it sounds perilous, you should have seen it! (Pictures soon!)

I got to the top, and the little bus station, at about 1:45, and spent the rest of the day exploring the little town that is Koya-san. I remember thinking that it seemed a little bit like the japanese version of Millinocket in winter. Except that almost the entire town is consisted of over 200 temples of the Shingon Buddhist faith. The roads were narrow and covered in snow, and the "downtown" consisted of one intersection, a couple of diners, a souvenir shop, and the information center, which was about as informative as my elbow. The clerk kept telling me I was looking at the wrong map if I wanted to go to the Okunon-in (Holy of Holies) where Kobo Daishi is entombed. The problem was that the map I was reading had actual trails printed on it, even if the marked route was a separate hike, it included the area I wanted, but the tourist map he was insisting on had no such detail. I am glad I took both, I would have gotten lost without the detailed trail map. The problem with some people trying to help is that they think that all foreigners must be stupid.

The Okuno-in is the mausoleum at the very back of a vast cemetery that climbs up into an ancient cedar forest. The trees there are massive, and the silence is beautiful. In the snow, it was just idyllic. I spent more than an hour sitting behind the temple there, facing the tomb in the back, waiting for my candle to burn down, waiting for dusk to fall so that I could see the Hall of Lanterns, as it is also known, in its full glow. A little after 5pm, the monks started ringing an ancient bell and chanting sutras. One at a time, they came around to the back to say their private prayers to the Daishi. I began to wonder if I belonged here at all, or if I was an unwelcome intruder. I just sat quietly with my head down and tried to be inconspicuous. Eventually my fears faded as I heard a clack clack clack and looked up to see a pouty princess in purple stiletto cowboy boots with rabbit fur trim come sashaying down the corridor with her pierced, spiked, and disaffected boyfriend. I knew I had no reason to worry!

I caught the bus back to the cable car around 6:30, and after coming down, caught the train to Wakayama, on the Seto Inland Sea. I had no place in Wakayama lined up, since all the hostels turned out to be ridiculously far from town, and so I hung out in the downtown area by the station for a while trying to make a plan. With help via cellphone email, I hoped I could book a room from the internet, but nothing can be prepaid, so I waited... trying to decide what to do. A slightly creepy salaryman kept popping up wherever I went and trying to take me out for coffee, and I kept blowing him off, saying I was waiting for my friend. Eventually, after a little bit of polite chitchat, I stopped in at the police box I had been keeping within sight, and asked if they knew a cheap hotel. I was referred to the City Inn, and I could see it from where we were. So I was off, and I was glad to leave that guy well behind me.

On the way up the street, I noticed a very cute little hotel on a side street so I thought I'd check the price and see if it was reasonable. When I got into the lobby, there was no front desk, just a big lit-up board of pictures, one of each room - and they had no windows! I was in a LOVE HOTEL! YIKES! I had almost made it out the door when a lady came out and tried to convince me to stay by offering an overnight price that was cheaper than the posted hourly rates. I thanked her with a smile and left! City Inn Wakayama, here I come!

The City was really old and shabby, the kind of place that's just dripping in history, about which you are not at all curious. I got a tatami room big enough for 4, and it was nice just to have space to myself. I enjoyed the QUIET bath, and spent the evening with a free internet connection. I celebrated the turn of my 31st year with treats from Mister Donut. Yes, as some are glad to know, they have Mister Donut here too! d(^o^)b (two thumbs up!)

Ok, gonna post this now, so it appears in digestible chunks!!