Japan

As part of the end of summer initiative, I invited Sophie and Juli to join me on a hiking trip to Mt. Nokogiri up in Chiba. We met up in Otsuka and rented a car with Juli behind the wheels. We had some hiccups in getting the music to start but once we got that out of the way, it was a road trip.

We made brief stop at a checkpoint in the middle of the bridge connecting the Tokyo and Chiba where we brought breakfast and enjoyed the views of the sea before continuing the journey. It was a bit congested on the way as it was the start of a three-day holiday so everyone was heading out of Tokyo. Once we did get there, we found ourselves in an old and quiet town. Juli parked the car and we made our way to the trailhead. Both Soph and I had prepared some joints for the hike so we smoked it up before heading up. However it quickly turned sour for me as I was quite sleep deprived, hungry and thirsty and was pushing myself way too hard while hiking and ended up getting my ass handed over to me. I couldn't see what was in front of me the visuals became too wild. I got too high and had to sit down and take off my shoes and feel the earth on my feet to ground myself, drinking lots of water from Soph and Juli's as I had accidentally bought a sports drink instead which didn't help. I later ate an onigiri which made things much more easy and bearable and the hike much more enjoyable as we proceeded higher and higher into the mountains.

Mt. Nokogiri was pretty unique in that it had a lot of stone quarries and carvings. There was a hole in the shape of a heart, a cat carving, and just these huge empty geometrical cuts on the face of the mountains. The best part was much ahead. We got lost a bit somehow but found our way to the summit. There was also a temple complex on the other side of the mountain so we went there after the summit, taking a peek at the popular cliff that gave the mountain its name "Saw Mountain."

The best part of the hike came when we entered the sacred grounds where there were a bunch of stone statues and carvings of Arhats, beings who have attained Nirvana. Aside from that, there was also a humongous stone carving of the Boddhisatva Avalokitesvara, better known as Guan Yin or Kannon in Japan. As we continued on the path, taking pictures every now and then of the hundreds of statues surrounded by the lush forest, all the fatigue seemed to disappear. The best part was a giant Buddha carved into the mountain, the biggest stone Buddha in Japan. We were the only ones left going around the area as we had arrived quite late, we were asked to find our way out and so started the descent which was much easier though it was also getting a bit darker. We found ourselves at a nearby train station and had to wait for an hour for the next train. We walked back to our car in the darkness of the night and began another trip back to Tokyo.

This time the traffic was also pretty bad and we ended up getting home extra late and had to give the car back to another branch. I had to walk back to the original place where we rented our car as I had left my bike there but thank goodness they hadn't closed yet and I was able to get it back to ride the way back home.Lue lisää