March 4, 2008 - Old Growth Cedars
I awoke at 6:30 and had my breakfast. As it was a restaurant I had to pay for the meals in addition to my room. It was a great breakfast though. Dried fish, scrambled eggs and miso soup. I bought some snacks in the gift shop and headed out.
The weather was much like the day before with overcast skies and mist over the mountains. I had heard from the front desk that there is a beautiful forest shrine on the way to T45. It was a longer route and I had to backtrack a little but the promise of "giant trees" was too tempting for me to say no.
So in true fashion I immediately headed up the wrong trail. About 100m into it I heard a car horn honking. The guy who rescued us yesterday (he could be the owner for all I know) had been watching out for me and when he saw me go the wrong way he jumped in his car and followed me as far as the trail would allow.
It's times like these when I thank God that I chanced on this Pilgrimage (if chance it be). Where else on this planet would people go out of their way to ensure that you are safe and on the right track? I suppose the cynic in me could conjure up a host of selfish motives for this behavior, but at some point even the cynic has to concede that it's just nice to be treated nice once in a while. I've paid a lot more and been treated a lot worse in places that were supposed to be "high class". I'll take getting rescued by a rickety mini-van in the backwoods of Japan over getting the stink-eye from some snob New York waiter for not knowing about wine any day of the week. Regardless of motives.
I digress. Once on the correct trail I found myself walking through cave pocked mountains. They only covered a small area and I was through them in about 15 minutes. However, like many things in Japan, what opportunities there were for aesthetic improvement weren't missed. A mountainside of caves to a Buddhist, especially a Japanese one, is like a buglight to a firefly. I would have been surprised to see nothing in and around the caves. Regardless, all was done with intricate care (and ceremony).
In this photo, the statue is great, but I'm more impressed with the stonework that fronts the cave and supports the statue. I can imagine a handful of Japanese men laughing, joking and working in earnest to make sure the stones fit perfectly together and support the statue. The stonework, to me, is more the symbol of Japan than the Buddhist statue.
The mountain trail had snow in places. The forest was comprised of the typical plants found in Shikoku. Lots of cedar, some pine, even less fir, deciduous horse chestnut, mountain cherry, laurel, bamboo and some broad leaf evergreens. It was still winter so sights and sounds of animals were rare. I did see one squirrel though. It was a monotone milk chocolate almost red color and between the size of a grey squirrel and a wood squirrel. I made a bumbling attempt to take its picture, but I was way too slow.
After running along a mountain crest for a while the trail headed down a ravine. I was so intent on my footing that I was taken by surprise when I looked up and saw that I was surrounded by giant cedars.
I'm sure there are many places in Japan that have old growth cedars but this was the first time I had seen any. By the way, old growth in Japan doesn't necessarily mean primeval like it does in America. This area may have been clear cut 800 years ago.
In some respects even more impressive were the gigantic horse chestnut trees. One was bigger than the largest cedar. With branches 100 feet off the ground having their own eco-systems growing on them nearer to the sun.
As I mentioned the Japanese have a hard time not "fiddling" with nature. So in an area like this, one has to be attentative or he/she will miss a lot of handiwork. I probably passed 20-30 small buddhist statues along the path that ran down through the trees. Each one with it's own unique meaning and in it's own little nook beside a tree or in a rock cleft. With all the "big" nature around, it would have been easy to overlook these small treasures.
Coming into IwaYaji (T45) was a bit of a surprise after the solemn trail that led to it. There were many bus henro and tourists at the temple. The side I had come in was from the woods whereas the other side of the temple was next to a highway. Actually it was kind of welcome after a quiet walk through the woods.
I immediately found a space to drop my gear and don my prayer items. There was currently a large group led by their priest chanting away at the main shrine so I went over to the Daishi Shrine and did my prayers.
Looking over I noticed a wood ladder leading up to a hollow in the rock about 25 feet above the temple. I was a little apprehensive about climbing it because in America I would have had to sign a waiver, put on a helmet and safety harness before being told that the wind was a little to strong today to allow me to climb it. But here, there were no signs or cordons forbidding me from climbing up so I looked left and then I looked right and then I climbed up.
I was a little cautious on the climb up. But after being up there a while I got used to the height. I knelt and prayed for 10 minutes or so. After that I thought it would be good to get a photo of me up there so I climbed down and asked someone to take my picture. (I was leaping up the ladder the second climb up.) She then wanted me to take her picture up there so I did. Wonderful little thing to make the temple more interesting.
My original plan was to slingshot around IwaYaJi and then try to make it to T46 (JouRuRiJi) before nightfall, but with my new found interest in photograpy I ran overtime and had to find lodging near T44. I got a reasonable room at the YasuragiShukuDenko (M51.6).
Eventhough I only walked about 13km that day, I arrived at the inn just before dark, footsore and hungry. Their ofuro was piping hot. I'd say at least 43c (or higher). After the bath I went to their dining area which is a restaurant with large glass windows looking onto the passing highway. As I sat there sipping my tea next to the window it began to snow heavily. I went back to my room, wrapped myself in the comforter and went to sleep.
Thought for the day
"There is nothing that centers a person like prayer."