Off we go a'templing....
Well, the foliage season has just about hit its peak over here, and Kyoto is flush with tourists hoping to catch a glimpse of it. Temples all around the city are taking advantage of the season - Kiyomizu, Kodiaji, Tofukuji, Nanzenji, Ginkakuji, Chion-in.... and those are just a few within walking distance of each other. Any place that has trees, has tourists, and yesterday I went off to one of the furthest ones - Kurama Mountain.
Kurama is way the hell north in Kyoto, and is famed for its annual Fire Festival. This is held on the same date as the Jidai Matsuri and, having been to the Jidai Matsuri, I can tell you that you're better off hitting the fire festival. I would much rather try to set myself on fire than sit through the entire Jidai Matsuri again, and there are those of you who know about me and fire....
To get there, take the Eizan train to the end of the line. On the way, there were trees in their full autumn glory, getting people all charged up for what lay ahead.
At Kurama station, you're greeted with a friendly Tengu. Why? I have no idea.
It has some connection to the first shrine of the day, Yuki Shrine.
The weather was really weird here. As you can see from the picture, it was sunny. And yet, it was drizzling slightly. Very confusing. People kept taking out their little pocket-sized umbrellas, looking up at the sky, and putting them back in confusion. Bizarre. I think the Tengu had something to do with it.
Anyway, Yuki Shrine is where the Fire Festival is held every year, which is good news if you're planning to go. It means the walk up the hill is only slightly interminable instead of massively interminable. You'll see what I mean later. It's only about a 300 meter walk uphill, and if you take the cable car you'll go right past it. I recommend walking, although if you do that, you'll miss the pagoda. Your choice. There's a nice garden on the way, and you'll be walking for the rest of the day anyway, so there's no point in pampering yourself.
There are a lot of smaller shrines and statues scattered around Yuki, such as this one - "Inochi"
It's supposed to represent the triune deity that comprise Sonten, or the creator/guardian deity that resides on Kurama Mountain. Amazing what you can learn if you actually read the brochure they give you when you buy a ticket. There's also this:
I don't think these are Jizo statues - they seem to be having more fun than Jizo usually has.
And once you get to the shrine itself, there's a giant cedar tree....
That was the only angle from which I could do it justice.
Yuki shrine is a nice place, very committed to the Tengu theme, it turned out. At most shrines and temples you can get an o-mikuji - a random fortune - by shaking a cylinder full of numbered sticks until one pokes out. You tell the attendant what number you got, and they give you that fortune. Easy. Yuki Shrine does it differently - there's a whole bin full of these little Tengu bell keychains....
...with a rolled-up fortune sticking out the back of its head. Clever, no? Not so clever as you'll see later on, but still....
So, Yuki Shrine was nice. Next, up the hill to Kurama Temple.
You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned The Boyfriend yet in this tale. That's because he wasn't with me - he had things to take care of at home, and told me to go on and have fun with my templing. Good choice on his part. He would have hated this day out. Why, you may ask? Stairs. We've done a few uphill climbs in search of temply goodness - Hiyoshi Taisha and it's stupid Golden Rock of the Dawn, for instance. Kongourinji and my Jizo Army for another. It's a mitzvah that he puts up with me when I say, "Let's go see a temple" and he knows there's a damn good chance he'll be hauling himself up some eternal staircase. As for me, I just remind myself that I climbed Mt. Washington because I was too green to know what I was getting into, but I had fun anyway, and how can this be worse?
Besides, when you're climbing up against an 80 year old man with a cane, a retirees hiking club and a guy with a crutch, it's really hard to say, "Screw this, I'm going home."
Within a few minutes, I stripped off my leather jacket and counted my blessings that I had not worn my Doc Martens. It's 791 meters (a little under a half mile) from Yuki Shrine to the main hall of Kurama Temple, all switchbacks and inclines. There are some lovely sights, though. Every now and then you just have to stop and take a picture....
Once you get to the top, there's a sort of bottleneck at the final stairs. Why? This is why:
Quite spectacular. Not quite up to the quality of, say, the Berkshires in mid-October, but still very nice. That gets me in trouble sometimes, by the way. Japanese people are very proud of their momiji, and don't like it to be suggested that there might be foliage of equal or better quality elsewhere in the world.
Once you get up to the level of the Main Hall, there are even more photo opportunities....
It's a lovely temple, and well worth the walk up. There are lots of benches on which to sit, and the view would be fantastic in any season, I'm sure. But the day isn't over yet, oh no.... If you go towards the back of the temple, you can start going up the mountain. It's not all uphill at first. You can hit the bell, which has a lovely sound to it. And there's a museum, with more lovely views of the mountainside....
Once you pass the museum, though, then you're going up the mountain.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Wear hiking-compatable shoes or sneakers if you plan to come here. The path is dirt and rock, with a few sectons spiderwebbed by tree roots. Beautiful, but not an easy walking surface. I saw one very, very good boyfriend giving his girlfriend a piggyback ride back down towards the main hall because she was wearing fashionable boots with heels. Consider yourself warned.
Again, climbing up there was tough, since I don't really do climbing very often. But, again, I was being paced by various vigorous seniors, and couldn't really let myself be outdone like that. So I kept going, following the signs that were conveniently posted.
At the highest point on the path, I noticed there was a small path off to the west. It was less travelled-by, if you catch my meaning, so I took it. About 100 meters in, there's a grove of trees and a small shrine. The ground is mostly tree roots and fallen leaves, and the dominant adjective is "silent." I sat down on one of the benches, closed my eyes, and listened to... nothing at all.
That picture is a poor reflection, really, but I had to try. Plus, I really liked the twisty tree on the left. There were a lot of good trees here, and opportunities for me to try my hand at some black and white....
...and different angles....
It was lovely, and I could have stayed there a lot longer than I did. I probably should have. But my hiking instinct took over, and that instinct says, "Keep going." So I did. After the Silent Grove, the path takes you downhill, past more small temples that were becoming increasingly difficult to photograph as the sun dropped in the sky. Next time I buy a digital camera, I'm gonna make damn sure it doesn't give me fits in low light conditions. Either I could take a picture with no flash, which was bright but blurry, or take one with the flash activated, which was sharp but dark. *sigh* The only decent picture I got on the way down from the mountain was a cedar grove....
...and that took four tries to get right. Pity, too, because there were more funky trees I would have loved to photograph, including one that looked like someone had grabbed both ends and just twisted it like taffy....
Some time later, I came to the westward entrance to Kurama Mountain. From the station to here was.... (adding... okay, and where's that web conversion page? Ah, there we go....) a little over a mile and a half, which doesn't sound nearly as impressive as 2,548 meters, dammit.
Right up the road, slightly north, is another famous shrine - Kibune Shrine. Since I was in the neighborhood, I thought I'd drop in. And the prospect of - yes - more stairs didn't daunt me at all. Oh no.
The main hall of Kibune looks suspiciously new.... This is a picture from taleofgenji.org:
And this is what I saw:
The small wooden structure to the right of the building in the first photograph can be seen in the foreground of the second. I think. I probably should have taken a pamphlet. It might have explained why the hall was rebuilt.... *shrug* The important thing is that I got good pictures here, too.
One of many trees outside the shops near Kibune Shrine
The mountain air must stir some kind of creativity in people, because at Kibune, I got another unorthodox fortune. At this temple, you pay 200 yen and choose one sheet from a stack of blank o-mikuji forms. You then take it over to a small pool, float it on the water, and your fortune appears like magic....
I can't read all of it, but the symbols in the center circle mean that I got a good one. Rock on.
And outside the temple, on the way to the train station, the neighborhood was all lit up, with the foliage illuminated. Of course, all the pictures I tried to take ended up horrible. It's a damn shame, too, because it was beautiful. Try to picture it: a narrow road with traditional Japanese houses and restaurants on either side. The already bright foliage lit up by strategically placed spotlights, and a river running along to your left. It's just cold enough so you can see your breath, and there's a long stretch of pale blue twilit sky showing between the mountains to either side of you. The road curves slowly left and right, and takes you gently downhill through the autumn night....
That's kind of what it was like, only moreso.
I stopped at a shop to buy some treats to give to The Boyfriend when next we met, and had a hot bowl of udon to keep me warm. When I got to the station at Kibune-guchi, there was a flood of people coming off the train, looking to see the lit up trees at Kibune Shrine. I got on the train, and had to stand. At one point, where the passengers had ooohed and aaahed earlier in the day, the train driver shut off all the lights so we could get one more dose of illuminated autumn. And then back to Kyoto proper....
Kurama is way the hell north in Kyoto, and is famed for its annual Fire Festival. This is held on the same date as the Jidai Matsuri and, having been to the Jidai Matsuri, I can tell you that you're better off hitting the fire festival. I would much rather try to set myself on fire than sit through the entire Jidai Matsuri again, and there are those of you who know about me and fire....
To get there, take the Eizan train to the end of the line. On the way, there were trees in their full autumn glory, getting people all charged up for what lay ahead.
At Kurama station, you're greeted with a friendly Tengu. Why? I have no idea.
It has some connection to the first shrine of the day, Yuki Shrine.
The weather was really weird here. As you can see from the picture, it was sunny. And yet, it was drizzling slightly. Very confusing. People kept taking out their little pocket-sized umbrellas, looking up at the sky, and putting them back in confusion. Bizarre. I think the Tengu had something to do with it.
Anyway, Yuki Shrine is where the Fire Festival is held every year, which is good news if you're planning to go. It means the walk up the hill is only slightly interminable instead of massively interminable. You'll see what I mean later. It's only about a 300 meter walk uphill, and if you take the cable car you'll go right past it. I recommend walking, although if you do that, you'll miss the pagoda. Your choice. There's a nice garden on the way, and you'll be walking for the rest of the day anyway, so there's no point in pampering yourself.
There are a lot of smaller shrines and statues scattered around Yuki, such as this one - "Inochi"
It's supposed to represent the triune deity that comprise Sonten, or the creator/guardian deity that resides on Kurama Mountain. Amazing what you can learn if you actually read the brochure they give you when you buy a ticket. There's also this:
I don't think these are Jizo statues - they seem to be having more fun than Jizo usually has.
And once you get to the shrine itself, there's a giant cedar tree....
That was the only angle from which I could do it justice.
Yuki shrine is a nice place, very committed to the Tengu theme, it turned out. At most shrines and temples you can get an o-mikuji - a random fortune - by shaking a cylinder full of numbered sticks until one pokes out. You tell the attendant what number you got, and they give you that fortune. Easy. Yuki Shrine does it differently - there's a whole bin full of these little Tengu bell keychains....
...with a rolled-up fortune sticking out the back of its head. Clever, no? Not so clever as you'll see later on, but still....
So, Yuki Shrine was nice. Next, up the hill to Kurama Temple.
You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned The Boyfriend yet in this tale. That's because he wasn't with me - he had things to take care of at home, and told me to go on and have fun with my templing. Good choice on his part. He would have hated this day out. Why, you may ask? Stairs. We've done a few uphill climbs in search of temply goodness - Hiyoshi Taisha and it's stupid Golden Rock of the Dawn, for instance. Kongourinji and my Jizo Army for another. It's a mitzvah that he puts up with me when I say, "Let's go see a temple" and he knows there's a damn good chance he'll be hauling himself up some eternal staircase. As for me, I just remind myself that I climbed Mt. Washington because I was too green to know what I was getting into, but I had fun anyway, and how can this be worse?
Besides, when you're climbing up against an 80 year old man with a cane, a retirees hiking club and a guy with a crutch, it's really hard to say, "Screw this, I'm going home."
Within a few minutes, I stripped off my leather jacket and counted my blessings that I had not worn my Doc Martens. It's 791 meters (a little under a half mile) from Yuki Shrine to the main hall of Kurama Temple, all switchbacks and inclines. There are some lovely sights, though. Every now and then you just have to stop and take a picture....
Once you get to the top, there's a sort of bottleneck at the final stairs. Why? This is why:
Quite spectacular. Not quite up to the quality of, say, the Berkshires in mid-October, but still very nice. That gets me in trouble sometimes, by the way. Japanese people are very proud of their momiji, and don't like it to be suggested that there might be foliage of equal or better quality elsewhere in the world.
Once you get up to the level of the Main Hall, there are even more photo opportunities....
It's a lovely temple, and well worth the walk up. There are lots of benches on which to sit, and the view would be fantastic in any season, I'm sure. But the day isn't over yet, oh no.... If you go towards the back of the temple, you can start going up the mountain. It's not all uphill at first. You can hit the bell, which has a lovely sound to it. And there's a museum, with more lovely views of the mountainside....
Once you pass the museum, though, then you're going up the mountain.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Wear hiking-compatable shoes or sneakers if you plan to come here. The path is dirt and rock, with a few sectons spiderwebbed by tree roots. Beautiful, but not an easy walking surface. I saw one very, very good boyfriend giving his girlfriend a piggyback ride back down towards the main hall because she was wearing fashionable boots with heels. Consider yourself warned.
Again, climbing up there was tough, since I don't really do climbing very often. But, again, I was being paced by various vigorous seniors, and couldn't really let myself be outdone like that. So I kept going, following the signs that were conveniently posted.
At the highest point on the path, I noticed there was a small path off to the west. It was less travelled-by, if you catch my meaning, so I took it. About 100 meters in, there's a grove of trees and a small shrine. The ground is mostly tree roots and fallen leaves, and the dominant adjective is "silent." I sat down on one of the benches, closed my eyes, and listened to... nothing at all.
That picture is a poor reflection, really, but I had to try. Plus, I really liked the twisty tree on the left. There were a lot of good trees here, and opportunities for me to try my hand at some black and white....
...and different angles....
It was lovely, and I could have stayed there a lot longer than I did. I probably should have. But my hiking instinct took over, and that instinct says, "Keep going." So I did. After the Silent Grove, the path takes you downhill, past more small temples that were becoming increasingly difficult to photograph as the sun dropped in the sky. Next time I buy a digital camera, I'm gonna make damn sure it doesn't give me fits in low light conditions. Either I could take a picture with no flash, which was bright but blurry, or take one with the flash activated, which was sharp but dark. *sigh* The only decent picture I got on the way down from the mountain was a cedar grove....
...and that took four tries to get right. Pity, too, because there were more funky trees I would have loved to photograph, including one that looked like someone had grabbed both ends and just twisted it like taffy....
Some time later, I came to the westward entrance to Kurama Mountain. From the station to here was.... (adding... okay, and where's that web conversion page? Ah, there we go....) a little over a mile and a half, which doesn't sound nearly as impressive as 2,548 meters, dammit.
Right up the road, slightly north, is another famous shrine - Kibune Shrine. Since I was in the neighborhood, I thought I'd drop in. And the prospect of - yes - more stairs didn't daunt me at all. Oh no.
The main hall of Kibune looks suspiciously new.... This is a picture from taleofgenji.org:
And this is what I saw:
The small wooden structure to the right of the building in the first photograph can be seen in the foreground of the second. I think. I probably should have taken a pamphlet. It might have explained why the hall was rebuilt.... *shrug* The important thing is that I got good pictures here, too.
One of many trees outside the shops near Kibune Shrine
The mountain air must stir some kind of creativity in people, because at Kibune, I got another unorthodox fortune. At this temple, you pay 200 yen and choose one sheet from a stack of blank o-mikuji forms. You then take it over to a small pool, float it on the water, and your fortune appears like magic....
I can't read all of it, but the symbols in the center circle mean that I got a good one. Rock on.
And outside the temple, on the way to the train station, the neighborhood was all lit up, with the foliage illuminated. Of course, all the pictures I tried to take ended up horrible. It's a damn shame, too, because it was beautiful. Try to picture it: a narrow road with traditional Japanese houses and restaurants on either side. The already bright foliage lit up by strategically placed spotlights, and a river running along to your left. It's just cold enough so you can see your breath, and there's a long stretch of pale blue twilit sky showing between the mountains to either side of you. The road curves slowly left and right, and takes you gently downhill through the autumn night....
That's kind of what it was like, only moreso.
I stopped at a shop to buy some treats to give to The Boyfriend when next we met, and had a hot bowl of udon to keep me warm. When I got to the station at Kibune-guchi, there was a flood of people coming off the train, looking to see the lit up trees at Kibune Shrine. I got on the train, and had to stand. At one point, where the passengers had ooohed and aaahed earlier in the day, the train driver shut off all the lights so we could get one more dose of illuminated autumn. And then back to Kyoto proper....