The temple of Kannon, Ofuna

Posted on by yondersonder

 

If while rolling down the JR line south from Yokohama you happen to past through Ofuna, make sure to look out the left window of the train and you’re sure to see the giant bust of Kannon sitting proudly atop a hill. I have seen the statue many times while making my way from Yokohama down to the wonderful town of Kamakura, but had never taken the time to see Kannon up close, even though the temple lies less than fifteen minutes from the station.

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The top of Kannon’s head rises over sixty feet from the ground. Carved from two thousand tons of concrete and coated in a white, paint like coating (which turns out to be paint, go figure), this particular statue was built in part with stones from the blast zones of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Kannon is a goddess of mercy, and represents mercy and peace worldwide throughout Asia. The statue was originally meant as a prayer for permanent world peace, but the construction of it was ironically halted by the advent of WWII. The statue was not completed in its present form until 1960, and has since been a popular destination, especially if you’re doing a Kamakura temple run.

Kannon Temple, Ofuna Japan

As spring will quickly (finally) be upon us here in Kanagawa, flowers have just started to bloom, including the odd rogue cherry tree. At the base of the temple, one such tree was flowering brilliantly in soft pink. Kannon was quite beautiful in the clear day and wore a very peaceful expression. Inside the figure was an ornate shrine with some interesting instruments nearby with the largest wooden block I’ve ever seen. There were dozens of small wooden carvings within as well. The Temple hosts a festival in September prompting international residents and visitors to open stalls, with an array of vegetarian dishes from around the world and other cultural displays.

 

I just might come back then.

Taya Caves

Posted on by yondersonder

 

Carved by monks over a span of 500 years, the Taya caves are an overlooked but excellent excursion from almost anywhere in Kanagawa or Tokyo. They make for a great day trip regardless of weather. The shrine sits about thirty minutes by foot from Ofuna station. The caverns are all hand carved and not natural, but they are a lot more extensive that I imagined. We spent the better part of an hour and a half exploring the passageways, altars and carvings of this soft walled subterranean work of art and dedication.

Toya Caves, carved by monks 1200-1700

You light candles as your light source and use these to bring the details of the artwork out of the walls. There are incandescent bulbs throughout the tunnels, so don’t worry if your candle goes out, there are several sources of flame throughout the caves at various alters as well. I would love to experience these caverns without the incandescent lights though. It would make for an incredible experience, and as the cave was started around 1200, a bit more authentic. Some of the higher carvings might warrant a flashlight to get a detailed look, by the way.

 

One of my favorite parts of the shrine is a small circular spot with a fountain flowing to the right of a small alter and carvings of turtles and birds that have held up phenomenally. It is amazing that these carvings have stayed intact throughout the years in the damp cave. I’m no geologist, but the walls seemed to me to be nothing more than clay and dirt.

 

There were several long tunnels that stretched far beyond the light of a candle. They were partially blocked, so not open to tourists however. I haven’t been able to find any additional information out about them, but will update here if I do.

 

One note: I learned after leaving that no photos are allowed in the cave. The carvings and tunnels are best enjoyed by candlelight and not through a lens in any case.

Okinawa and Tokashiki Island

Posted on by yondersonder

 

There aren’t many better places to sneak off to when winter is bearing its fangs than a beach and warm clear water. I really recommend anyone feeling the need to get away from the cold to just head south a bit from wherever you are, even if it’s only for a weekend. Flights can be found for cheap these days, and with a bit of creativity and an open mind, lodgings can be had for fractions of the costs of traditional hotels. Many places in the northern hemisphere have their ‘off-season’ in the first few months of the year, but they are still amazing to visit, with the benefit of ditching the crowds and discounted prices at many places. Some services and shops don’t open of course, and you might need to bring a light jacket, but I would say the benefits outweigh the slight negatives.

Okinawa and Tokashiki

Okinawa is wonderful in January. I stayed for three nights and the weather rarely dipped below 25 Celsius (70s in F). It rained on and off sporadically while I was there, but that usually just presented opportunities to make new friends while waiting out the rain. Or, protip, if you’re underwater, the rain doesn’t matter much. I spent the entirety of one storm scuba diving with a great company.

 

Speaking of diving, the prices were really reasonable for basic dives. I paid ~$85 for a two-hour (one under) boat dive around a coral bay. I dove in the gorgeous waters of Tokashiki island, which are so blue the Japanese have a special name for the color. The water was also the clearest that I have ever dived in, perhaps sixty-foot visibility. There were some impressive fish and octopi around the corals, even though this time of year the area is practically barren relative to the summer, according to my dive lead. January is the peak time to see sea turtles and whales around Okinawa though. I met a nice Japanese couple, both teachers, who saw (from what I could deduce between my terrible Japanese and their good English) several humpback whales and sea turtles from a boat nearby. I did not unfortunately, see any sea turtles or whales. Sea turtles are my favorite animal as well. I ended up meeting the couple and their son again on the way to the airport and they were kind enough to invite me into a club while we waited for our flight; nice folks.

 

Tokashiki itself was a beautiful island that I would not have minded spending more time on. A short ferry ride (one hour or 30 min depending on if you take the ‘slow’ or jet ferry) brings you to the island. The ferry only runs a few times a day though, so I would recommend planning out your activities or staying the night. There are accommodations available there, both cheap hostels and hotels, as well as scooter rentals, and you could spend several days relaxing there with a full schedule. If I return to Okinawa, I will definitely make it a point to see what the island offers at night. Some friends I made at the hostel stayed there one night, and gave good accounts. The beaches are wide, the water is warm (in January, a wetsuit is optional) and there are plenty of places to rent whatever equipment you might want. The surf wasn’t terribly impressive at the beaches I went to, but apparently, there are decent places to ride some waves. The restaurant near the ferry is definitely worth checking out by the way. I had some solid curry udon, with a complementary ‘pumpkin’ (read: squash) soup that was some of the best I’ve ever had.

 

The hostel that I stayed at, Sora, was a great deal at ~$11/night for a shared room. Full services with washer/dryer, shower, etc. and recommendations and references to anything you might want around Okinawa, whether that is a tour, aquarium trip (incredible aquarium north of Naha), vehicle rentals, or restaurants. The staff is very friendly and so were the guests. I actually ended up meeting up with some of them in Tokyo a few weeks afterward for some delicious ramen. I’m not sure if they offer private rooms though. If you want, there are many options for accommodations in Naha, from open tatami mat hostels for less than 10USD to full hotels and ryokan. Sora is a great spot though, located near the monorail, downtown, and the ferry docks.

 

Okinawan food is a crazy and delicious meld of Ryokan, Japanese, Chinese, SE Asian and American cuisine. Local specialties include squid ink rice, goya/bitter melon, taco rice, uni-budo (salted seaweed-DIP THIS IN SOY SAUCE PLEASE), and Okinawan soba, which is a much more processed noodle than what you will find in the northern parts of Japan. On my first night here, after spending the day at Tokashiki, I went out for a ten (?) course meal with some people from the hostel and we were able to try a great assortment of local fare for less than $30 with nomihodai. Oh, the Okinawans are naturally big on seafood. On my last day, a group of us went to the fish market and had some seriously delicious and fresh seafood. I tried an Okinawan bitter melon beer here as well, which was pretty interesting. The bitter melon has a sharp bite to it that fads quickly and smoothly, and it is no wonder that it is a local favorite. The local liquor is awamori, made from Thai rice, and has a flavor similar to shouchu.. or a mild whisky. It is occasionally bottled with a viper, just for added fun and discomfort. Definitely worth trying while here. Speaking of drinking, after the meal, we went out for a nightcap and after shying away from the more interesting districts in town, ended up at a shooting bar. You could choose between a variety of dozens of pistols and semiauto airsoft rifles to shoot down a gallery set up alongside the bar. A fairly ridiculous concept that is really fun in execution. Check it out.

 

My last full day in Okinawa was spent visiting castles, shrines and museums. My first stop was Shuri castle, rebuilt after WWII, the castle takes up an impressive amount of real estate of the relatively small area of Naha. Walking the outer walls takes the better part of half an hour, and the gardens outside the castle spread quite a way down a river. The main portion of the castle is in vivid red and gold, and the whole grounds hold a relaxed, unhurried feel that went nicely with the warm day (sweating in January is excellent). I attended a tea ceremony in the castle looking out into a coral garden which was really relaxing. They served a type of sweet Jasmine tea with an assortment of cookies and sweets, including chinsuko, which tastes like shortbread, and various simple fat and sugar cookies in intricate designs. If you go to the castle, definitely attend a tea ceremony, they should not be skipped. Plus, the fee was only 300 yen (<$3).

 

After Shuri castle, I made the terrible mistake of deciding to walk to the imperial gardens “nearby”. Two hours later, I had seen some impressive graveyards, highways, ate some great katsudon (deep-fried pork and egg over rice), and was seriously regretting my decision. Once I got to the gardens though, the sweat was worthwhile. Once a second home for the Ryokan royal family, the gardens retain the peace and tranquility they once had. The main attraction here is the pond, with a carved stone and coral bridge crossing it, and the main house which was an intriguing snapshot of how the past kings of Ryokan spent their leisure time.

 

I spent the rest of the day traveling to shrines and museums, too many to go into here. A highlight was the Fukushu-en garden, next to the Confucian shrine, a large garden filled with sculpture and carved rock. The focal point is a pagoda on top of a massive carved stone, with a waterfall off the front face. You can walk inside the stone in a series of black tunnels, which is worth the entrance fee alone. Oh, a note on that, you can avoid the fee as a foreigner apparently. Not that the 300 yen is going to break the bank. Naminoue shrine was a great spot as well. It is remarkable to look at, built on a cliff above a beach. The temple was in the process of collecting and burning last years’ charms while I was there, so it was quite crowded, and I didn’t linger, but if you find yourself in Naha at the very least I would look up at the shrine from the beach below. Especially as the other view from the beach is the highway overpass.

okinawapano

 

On a more personal note, the past few months have been incredibly trying for me and my family. To be honest, I’ve never come up against a challenge as great as the one I’m going through now, and some challenges just can’t be solved head on. I have always found the ocean to be a restorative place for me though, both physically and mentally. I spent less on this vacation than I spend a month on transportation, and it was sorely needed. The incredible waters of Okinawa definitely brought me a bit of peace.

Sumo in Tokyo! Or rather, the Edo museum

Posted on by yondersonder

 

The Grand Sumo Tournament takes place in Tokyo in September, and is the biggest of the six sumo tournaments in the year. Unfortunately, this also means that tickets sell out very early in the morning. Not knowing this, a few friends and I went to attend the tournament, arriving before the start to discover that tickets had sold out hours before. If you want to get a general admission ticket, be prepared to be at the stadium the moment tickets go on sale. Other tickets are available of course, but prices go up to several hundred dollars for other seats, and also sell quickly.

Tokyo Edo Musuem

The day was not wasted though, as right next to the stadium is the excellent Edo museum. This museum has full scale building replicas throughout, including housing examples from the Edo period up through the 1960s. You can’t go inside the buildings, but they show the slice of life of Japanese citizens very well, and tell great stories intrinsically. There are also dozens of scale models of architecture and cities throughout the museum with beautiful attention to detail.

 

Tokyo has been built and rebuilt many times throughout its history, and the museum shows how the city has evolved throughout these changes, whether the changes were natural disasters like the great Kanto earthquake, fires, or caused by man and war. It is sobering to see some of the devastation, but the city and the people of Japan have always gone to rebuild something greater than it was before.

 

We ended the trip with a flight at a local brewery built under a train line, and the always delicious sushi train, where you can eat great food for cheap prices. It’s a great way to try samples of many different dishes without breaking the bank. Beer in Japan is heavily taxed (due to a malt tax on top of liquor tax) but the industry is starting to try novel styles lately to cater to westerners and adventurous Japanese alike. I’ll go more in depth into Japanese breweries in a later article.

Double tenth Taiwanese Festival in Chinatown

Posted on by yondersonder

There’s nothing quite like attending a festival celebrating the beginning of a new era in China, the founding of the Republic of China, while in the heart of the largest Chinatown in the world. Yokohama’s Chinatown is deserving of its own article, with its plethora of great restaurants,  snacks, vendors and museums. The double tenth or ten ten festival dates back to the 1910s and the main celebratory affairs here were the lion dances and their explosive accompaniments.

There were at least four teams of lion dancers, who would dance under the lion costumes through small shops and crowded restaurants before emerging outside with some encouragement from drummers and loud crowds. The dance culminates at each store with the dancers hopping on each other’s shoulders during a “cai quin” and grabbing ‘green leaves’ (here the leaves were fortunes, cash envelopes or crisp bills from the business proprietors from what I could tell) held from the second or third story windows to bring luck to the business. The money in the envelope is a reward for the lion dancers. The lions seemed to leave behind symbols at each shop made out of food, but I wasn’t able to read the characters.

Yokohama Chinatown Tenth Tenth Taiwanese Festival

 

Of course, my friend and I had to get some pork buns while in Chinatown. When I first came to Japan these were my daily breakfast more days than not. Due to short funds, our main meal was at a cheap 24-hour ramen dive in motomachi, but even a three dollar meal is pretty filling if you know what to order. I will definitely need to return to Chinatown soon and experience a proper Chinese tabehodai with some friends.

Odawara

Posted on by yondersonder

Odawara castle is a five story castle built in the fifteenth century, although the building you see there today is certainly not the original. The compound has been torn down and rebuilt several times with 1960 being the most recent work on the current building. The castle is a quick walk from the station and has an interesting museum inside with scale models of the original compound as well as various artifacts and tools from the Hojo clan. There is also a rotating exhibit on the third floor. The small fee of 500 en is definitely worth the price, the view from the top alone is almost worth it.

Odowara October 2016

There are some spectacular views from the fifth story observation deck from where you can see most of Odawara and Mt. Oyama among a number of smaller peaks in the range. After leaving the castle, we went down to the beach and discovered that it was wetsuit season. Summer has definitely left Japan, although temperatures are still sweat inducing every now and then. We ate kurage (Japanese fried chicken breast) at a Hawaiian restaurant with colossal portions attached to one of the everpresent pachinko parlors. I suppose if you lose all your en gambling at least you can get a good meal afterward.

 

Sadly this month is a rather tight one budget wise, so I didn’t get to check out the nightlife in Odowara, which looks quite lively. But we headed into Yokohama for a brief hoppy sochu or two at a favorite izekaya to round off the night.

Lake Toya, Hokkaido

Posted on by yondersonder

 

In the late spring I traveled up to Hokkaido with Heather on a trip meant to relax. Usually my travels around Japan center on seeing as much as possible in limited time. The trip delivered on relaxation. Hokkaido is a beautiful and open island, covered in rolling hills and endless greenery. I drove for the first time Japan, and after getting used to driving on the left hand side of the road I was having a blast. Japan has some confusingly low speed limits (80kmph on the highway… about 50) that everyone seems to ignore, which suited me just fine. The green hills rolling past reminded me of the Shenandoah valley in Virginia, with the added excitement of steam from geothermal activity and fog here and there.

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It’s famed in Japan for its agriculture, and all of the fresh fruit and vegetables we ate on the island attest to that. The milk from its cows is exceptional too, due to diet or perhaps the lifestyle choice of the cows (there is a very low smoking rate among Hokkaido dairy cattle). If you do go, definitely get yourself some hot Hokkaido milk at some point.

 

We stayed at a nice hotel in a room overlooking lake Toya, formed in a volcanic caldera. The hotel had a public bath which I utilized as much as possible. Onsen and public bath houses are an essential part of any trip to Japan. I can’t stress this enough. The experience can be a bit disconcerting for westerners, but there aren’t many better ways to relax for an hour. They are typically less than 500 en ($5) to stay as long as you like and have everything you need to get clean and relaxed. When entering an onsen or public bath, the first thing you do is strip naked and clean yourself while sitting on a tiny stool in front of your own showered area. It’s really important to scrub thoroughly here, so as not to contaminate the communal bath (don’t be a dick). After rinsing any soap/shampoo you step into a large spa essentially. These can be heated at various temperatures, but 40 is a pretty standard temperature. There’s a rule that you can measure the tubs temperature by eyeballing the age of the people in the tub… in celcius. Some baths even have a cold tub you can dunk in after a good hot soak, but not here.

 

Lake Toya itself is gorgeous. Clear blue waters surround a large island that you can take a ferry to. The island has a floating shrine and some really relaxing footpaths, just be careful not to crush the giant snails that like to hang out on it (guilty). You can rent anything from speedboats to rowboats on the shores of the lake as well, for reasonable rates. Around 8 pm every night fireworks are launched over the lake as well. You can watch them from the shore or take a night ferry which is styled as a floating castle to enjoy them in style. We opted for the former.

 

The food around lake Toya is great as well. There are some excellent restaurants in town that are really cheap for the atmosphere and food quality. I had a dish of baked pasta and mussels for half of what it would cost anywhere in the US while in a gardened restaurant.

 

There is plenty of quality hiking around the area as well. Mt. Showa-Shinzan is an active magma dome that is an awesome shade of ochre. You can hike (or cable car) up some nearby hills to see it from above and enjoy some stunning views. The hike is a lot of work, but we met a 70 year old man hiking up, so you have no excuses. There are also some ruins from a mudslide you can explore. A school was completely enveloped by mud up to desk height, and there are several apartment buildings in down that had to be evacuated. Seeing modern buildings vacant reminded me of the constant dangers that the islands of Japan faces with regard to natural disasters. In a moment, you might have to change your entire life.

 

Koenji’s awa Odori Festival

Posted on by yondersonder

The awa odori matsuri is part of the Obon (including bon odoris) festival season which celebrates the spirits of the dead (similar to Halloween in the west)  and dates back to the twelfth century and is famed in the Tokushima prefecture, where the biggest awa odori festivals are held. Koenji has its own spectacular take on the festival, with over a hundred groups of dancers and musicians playing the lute, drums (taiko), flute (shinobue), and cymbals or the kane bell while dancing in a parade. The music of the drums is epic and you feel it like standing next to the speaker at a wompy dub show [recording]. It’s pretty hard to resist the urge to join in the dance yourself! The food consists of typical festival fare, with most of it sold by locals or stalls operating from restaurants or conbinis.

koenjiawaodori7.JPG

 

Each group does their own dance in various styles, including the ‘dance of fools’ which involves some graceful handwaving and big smiles all around. The dance originates from a large 16th century castle opening where everyone drank copious amounts of sake and started staggering about while friends joined in with instruments. I had a bit of sake myself as the festival wound down, joining a few new friends for gyooza (fried dumplings) and a drink or two. Koenji is a vibrant and friendly part of Tokyo that I would recommend to any nightlife lover. There is a multitude of izekaya and restaurants underneath and around the train tracks with cheap drinks and friendly staff. The district also has a lot of clothing shops, new and used, for any fashion lovers out there.

Koenji awa odori 2016

Fuji-san and the Subarashi Trail

Posted on by yondersonder

‘You are wise to climb Mt. Fuji. You are a fool to do it twice’ ~Japanese Proverb

mtfujitori.jpg

Climbing Mt. Fuji is the dream of many around the world. The mountain is featured in countless drawings, ads, and photos of and in Japan, and I am hard pressed to think of a better known Japanese icon. I even own a pair of socks featuring the mountain. I have wanted to climb Fuji since I was a teenager, and I almost missed the climbing season this year. You can climb the mountain outside of the season, but the dangers are significant and you need the proper gear, which I don’t have in Japan. People have been known to have been literally blown off of the mountain. Even climbing in the ‘season’ the mountain is not a day hike. You gain a serious amount of elevation and are above treeline for some time before you reach the summit.

 

I chose to climb the subarashi trail instead of the more popular yoshida trail for a few reasons: the principal being that you avoid the crowds, with the subarashi trail having less than 20% of the traffic of the yoshida trail. The trails meet up at the old 8th station, and the trail instantly went from a solo hike with a few friends every few hundred meters to a line of people shuffling up the remainder of the mountain. The subarashi trail also boasts the highest treeline of the four Fuji trails and you can see the sunrise from the trail if you didn’t make it to the summit by sunrise for whatever reason.

Now, this trail is less crowded for a few reasons though. The 5th station, where you start, has very few services, basically a restaurant, gift shop, pay toilet, and a conbini of sorts. The restaurant does kindly give you a small cup of hot mushroom soup before and after your descent, and I gratefully received mine. The yoshida trails fifth station is a small town on the other hand, with restaurants and even onsen… and lockers. I was counting on using one before I set up the trail, and so set off with a heavier load than I wanted to. The subarashi trail also starts at 2000m versus the 2300m starting point of the yoshida trail, although they both end at the 3,776m (12,388ft) summit. This extra distance was actually a small selling point to me though, as I would get to see more of the mountain (note: since I climbed through the night, this didn’t really matter).

The terrain of the trail consists of volcanic dirt up through treeline, which gives way to sand and stone as you ascend. Between the new 6th and new 7th stations, the trail is really sandy, and the going is tough, but this soon gives way to rocky terrain up through the summit. After merging with the yoshida trail at the old 8th station, the trail is quite well worn and easily traversed as it winds its way up the mountain. The subarashi trail is quite steep throughout though, so don’t go expecting a casual stroll. When it’s all said and done, the subarashi trail takes you up about 6000 vertical feet. I did this climb from 7:30 pm to 4:00 AM, stopping approximately half an hour at each go (station) to avoid altitude sickness and as my pace was crazy fast (about double the suggested pace) until I reached the 7th station three hours earlier than I expected.

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The actual climb was breathtaking. I arrived at the fifth station around 6:45 and spent some time picking out a hiking staff to be branded along the trails. I had a brief snack and enjoyed the complementary mushroom soup from the station staff, rested for thirty minutes, and set off. There is a suggested fee of 1000 en you pay before or after you climb the mountain. This is technically optional, but you’re enjoying a beautiful natural resource, and $10 plus a lot of sweat really is a good deal for the experience. I hiked through the forest for a few hours at a good pace, seeing absolutely no one until I reached the first station (the old fifth). I sat down with a nice Japanese man and exchanged some gifts of beef jerky and sports candy (this stuff is awesome! See supplies section). We chatted in my poor Japanese and his poor English with the aid of google translate for a half hour and went our separate ways, although we would catch up for a few minutes at each station until I outpaced him. I met some French students here as well. It was nice seeing the same people at each station as you progressed up the trail.

I continued to make my way up the mountain at a fast pace, taking breaks to stargaze and appreciate the awesome fiery glow of each station up the mountain. These seemed an impossible distance away on the ascent, but were realistically only a few hundred vertical meters apart. I stopped at the seventh station for some food, and was given a salmon onigiri by an overstocked fellow climber. This was good, as I had severely underestimated how much I would eat on this climb. All in all, I ate four hardboiled eggs, a package of beef jerky, the onigiri, a bowl of udon and beef, and a box of less than appetizing calorie mate, a high energy food replacement. Pro-tip, don’t get the cheese flavored black box. I realized that I was severely ahead of schedule and would hit the summit around midnight if I kept my current pace, so took a two hour nap/rest on some comfortable rocks before continuing. I shortly hit the old eighth station and merged onto the yoshida trial, and my pace was cut in 1/4. Which was good, as I was still due to hit the summit hours early.

Most climbers climb Fuji in two days, with a rest or stay at one of the many mountain lodges on the mountain. This ranges from 3500 to 8000 en depending on where you stay and if you want meals. I decided to save the money by ‘bullet climbing’ the mountain and this was a good choice for me, but less experienced hikers and climbers should opt for the stay.

Mt. Fuji Subarashi climb 2016

I arrived at the summit at four am. I chatted with a few Americans and Japanese while waiting for the sunrise to start, overlooking the unkai (sea of clouds) on wooden benches. The moments leading up to the sunrise were perhaps the most magical part of Fuji. Watching the gorgeous starscape be slowly eked away by a rising rainbow of blue and gold with hundreds of other people who had just made the climb you had was an astounding experience. The sunrise itself happened so fast you could almost have missed it, if not for the collective gasp from the audience of climbers of all ages. It is clear where the inspiration for the Japanese rising sun flag came from here, as sunbeams pierces through the sea of clouds and the great orange sun showed itself. I’m still thinking about the sunrise today.

I didn’t linger long on the summit, just long enough to get a few hundred photos and a can of boiling lava to represent the volcano. Ok, it was hot chocolate, but I could barely hold it with my gloves on! I went the whole way down with a new friend, a student studying chemistry in Tokyo who ran after me to catch up. The route down the mountain was a never ending trail of sand at an impossible angle. I looked off the mountain once at the clouds and was puzzled at the strange angle they were cutting into the sky, until I realized that I was standing at a steep angle to the slope and the hill was a far more impressive incline than I had realized. My new friend encouraged me to take part of the hill at a ‘subarashi run’ which is letting gravity take you down the sandy gravel at a deadly rate until you get too scared and try to stop. Good times.

I have no idea the last time that I have been so exhausted. I slept on the bus back to Gotemba, I slept on the three trains home, and when I arrived at my apartment, I slept for seventeen hours until the following Sunday. The exhaustion is absolutely worth the experience.

And I just might be a fool, because I want to climb the mountain again.

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My trip route:

Yokohama station to Gotemba station by train 1500 en

Round trip bus to the 5th station 2000 en

Climbing Fuji, priceless (ok 1000 en)

Suggested supplies:

Wicking underwear top and bottom

Water, 2L +

Sports candy (salt suckers basically, get them)

Food (I would recommend 2000 calories in high energy food)

Winter jacket

Rain gear

Winter hat

Sunglasses

Hiking stick (buy a staff, it’s a great souvenier)

Quality boots with gaiters

Wool socks, 3 pair

100 en coins for pay toilets, etc. Bring 10000 en to be safe (not all in 100 en coins…)

 

I found this link to be very helpful if you’re considering the climb:

http://www.garyjwolff.com/climbing-mt-fuji.html

 

Kiyumizudera

Posted on by yondersonder

“To jump off the stage at mizudera” is a famous saying in Japan, meaning something akin to taking a risk without knowing the outcome can be worthwhile. It’s said that if you leap off the balcony of the stage here (and survive), any wish will be granted. Given that the fall is almost 200 feet, that seems a fair trade. Nowadays everyone gets fussy if you try to leap off the stage, so I can’t really recommend that, but the entire grounds are quite amazing.

 

Kiyumizudera

The temple was built in the 1600s and the main structure (title image) was built without using a single nail. The trek up to the temple is a decent walk, but since it sits high on a hill, you’re rewarded with some pretty spectacular views. I lucked out and we arrived as the day was clearing up; you could see most of Kyoto. The temple’s name comes from a waterfall that feeds its large fountain, Otawa-no-taki, roughly translated, kiyumizu is pure/clean water. The fountain itself is said to grant longevity, which is helpful if you intend on jumping off the stage. The fountain also has wish-granting abilities, if you want to forgo the stage dive.

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Jishu-jinja Shrine

One of the coolest parts of the temple complex is the small shrine dedicated to love (or lover’s vengeance anyway). We almost skipped the little shrine of Jishu-jinja, which would be a huge mistake. Though tiny, the shrine is jam packed with lovely features. Dedicated to Okuninushi, a sort of match-making deity. There is an old tree where women would hammer dolls to curse their enemies in the middle of the night by the power or Okage-myoojin.

In the main path of the shrine are two large stones, about twenty feet apart. These are the love stones. If you can walk from one to the other with your eyes shut you will be lucky in love. You can have others help you though it means you’ll need help with love later in life.

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If I had to rate the must see temples in Kyoto, this would definitely make the top two. If you’re going to Kyoto, make sure you set aside a few hours for Kiyumizudera. Just walking the grounds will take the better park of an hour, and that isn’t including Jishu-jinja or the twenty-plus minute wait for Otawa-no-taki (which is worth it by the way). Definitely take the time to see one of the greatest man-made structures in Japan.