Mitokusan

On Thursday morning (May 24), after a hearty breakfast and quick dip in the hot spring bath, Jonathan and I packed up our things and checked out of our lovely Ryokan. It was hard to leave such a comforting and peaceful place. Today we plan to hike up a mountain to see a shrine call Mitokusan. You won’t find Mitokusan in any tour book because it is out in the middle of no where and the shrine does not cater to foreign tourists, since everything is in Japanese only. Mitokusan Shrine is made up of a series of shrines that were only discovered in this century, although they were built sometime around 794 AD. The legend is that a Buddhist priest blew three lotus petals into the air and when they landed they blossomed into these shrines on Mt. Mitoku. Another legend says that a god threw the temples up on the mountain. More impossible than a temple standing on a shear face of a mountain is imagining how it could have been built in 794 AD, 250 meters above the ground. Jonathan has been telling me about this place for years now. I was so happy that we could see it together. When the temple was discovered, it had several ceramic guardians waiting inside. After examining these figures, researchers found ancient scrolls hidden inside. These are on exhibit at the shrine. It’s hard to imagine that something so old isn’t in a national museum somewhere.

The hike up to the shrine was quite treacherous. Before we could start the hike, the Buddhist priest put a sash around each of our necks with a prayer skillfully written on it for protection. As we climbed up tree roots, and peered off the porches of shrines hanging into the sky, I felt like a great adventurer. The temple at the top was stunning, but smaller than I imagined. When we started on the way down the mountain, my faulty and unpredictable digestive system began to rebel from large amount of very strange food I was feeding it. As many of you know, I need to have my gall-bladder removed, and after this upset, I plan to make the appointment to have the surgery done as soon as I am back in America. My gallbladder still hurts and it’s been 10 days since that wonderful dinner at the Ryokan.

Thursday night we slept at a friend’s house named Brother Swasey. He is an American who married a Japanese woman and has been living in Japan for the past 20-some-years. Despite spending nearly half his life as a resident of Japan, I have never met anyone more American in my life. He even built his family’s house American-style, and although it’s beautiful, it certainly sticks out among on the Japanese architecture. The strangest thing was that when I met him we both felt that we had met before. So, look at his picture and tell me if you know this guy. For dinner we made pizza with all the trimmings. His kids, Jonathan, and I scarfed down everything, just in time for my gall-bladder to feel like it was going to explode. It was a restless night’s sleep between the gall-bladder pains and the chirping of millions of little green frogs outside the window.

We found this dead bee outside of our Ryokan. It is the size of Jonathan's thumb. I hope it's not dead because it stung someone. Ouch.

Before you enter the shrine you pour water over your hands and over this little statue. As you pour water over it, little chimes play somewhere in the distance. It's really cool.

These little statues are little Gods. People give them little hats, food, bibs, and the like as offerings.Man and Priest praying at a shrine. The priest beats a drum and sings while the man meditates and prays.Me and Takeru holding on for dear life. Jonathan finding a moment of Zen.

A big bell you can ring after you make a monetary offering to the gods. The gods will hear your prayers when you ring the bell.Jonathan and i posing at a shrine.Finally we reach Mitokusan Temple.
Isn't it beautiful. It's amazingly old and made completely out of wood. It's amazing that it is even standing at all, let alone on the face of a mountain.