(Continued from Journal 2011: Day 3, The Day After)

First thing we did upon waking up on Sunday was to check the Keio rail company’s site for outages.  Thankfully, the lines we would need to get to Mt. Takao were running!

We’d been to Mt. Takao on our first trip, in the middle of July, and while it was one of the highlights of the trip, it was a hot, miserable day, made only slightly more bearable by the shade afforded by the trees along the path.

This time, it was the middle of March, and from the forecast the weather would be in our favor, both for the trek up the hill, and for dropping in on the Hiwatari Festival going on that same day.

A short trek up the road to Shinsen station, tickets bought, and we were on our way.  We had to transfer at Meidaimae station, which should be a no-brainer, but tourists be warned….  The Keio line isn’t as English-friendly as the JR line.  Most of the signs, route maps, and “next train” signs don’t display English at all, and quite frankly aren’t as straightforward as the JR signage.  So after we finally deciphered what train we needed.  It threw us for a bit of a loop as we discovered we needed to transfer one last time for the last leg.  Or did we? No.  We got off with everyone else and watched as the LED destination signs on the side of the train changed.  Sigh.  Luckily the next one was a few minutes along and it was back on the road so to speak.

Not surprisingly, the crowd I would have expected on what would have been a normal festival day was absent.  They either stayed home due to the uncertainty surrounding the earthquake or couldn’t make it due to line closures.  We walked down the main street of the tiny town of Takaosanguchi to where the festival would be.  They were just setting up, and it was roughly 11am, and it wasn’t set to start until 1pm.  Decisions, decisions.  Do we wait here for it to start or go ahead and go on up, probably missing most of the ceremony.

We opted to go ahead and go on up, since we weren’t sure what might happen if we hung around too late.  I’d brought a significant amount of cash with us, in case for some reason the trains quit running again, and we had to either get an expensive taxi or find a place to crash for the night…..

Predictably my wife and daughter opted to take the cable car up the hill, while Daniel and I walked up the (very very steep!) stairs to the chair lift.  We got a nice (but expensive) souvenir photo of us riding the chair, which I’ll have to scan and put up here.  At the bottom the Keio people were having some sort of promotion between them and the Suica people.  I bought a bottle of cold green tea with the Suica, and magically won a Keio branded washcloth.  Yay!

Even on the hill, there weren’t very many people, considering the events of the day.  Or maybe it was considering the events of two days ago, who knows.  Up here there was still snow on the ground in spots, reminding us of our Grand Canyon trip last year.

Of course, a visit to the Monkey Park was in order.  My daughter is a monkey freak and this was part of the bargain.  It gave me a chance to sit and take in the view at least while they watched the monkeys play in their large enclosure for a while.  They got to throw some food at them, aiming for the littlest one and hoping the bigger ones didn’t take it away from it.

Then it was on up the trail to the Buddhist temple complex.  Despite the uphill climb, and the couple of instances of (again) very steep stairs, it was a pleasant cakewalk compared to last time.  The foliage this time of year is very different.  The hydrangeas hadn’t even started leafing out yet, so there were a lot of “sticks” where last time there weren’t.  But there were plenty of other surprises, like the camelias and plums which were in bloom.  I was hoping that one day the camelia I planted would turn into one of these trees, instead of the small 1′ high bush it was now.

The temple was just as I’d remembered it.  Although the ornate painting on the outside of the higher-up building looked to be weathered considerably since last time.  Of course that’s part of the deal, knowing that it doesn’t last forever.  Transient and all that Buddhist stuff….

Time was getting on, and we didn’t feel like going up all the way to the top.  I had done that last time (quite accidentally), and quite frankly it was sort of a let down, with nothing but a couple of shops and a hazy viewpoint up there.

We also had our first run in with the kids vs. a proper Japanese old-style toilet.  Not to go into details but lets just say I was hoping the next time would go better.  I won’t go into details, but just the whole “I don’t really want to do this” thing could have been avoided.

We went back down near the cable car station, and decided we’d go up yet another narrow, steep set of stairs to the observatory restaurant.  A wonderful view, and the food wasn’t bad at all, even if the menu is quite limited.  We had some huge bowls of ramen (and a hot dog, sigh) while we rested up a bit.  Outside, the smoke from the fire at the ceremony below was starting to waft up the hill, and we could see it from the observatory, so we knew we’d missed at least that much.

Arriving at the bottom, the smell of the smoke was much stronger.  We found our way back to the clearing, just in time to watch as the lines of people removed their shoes and walked through the raked over ashes.  Judging from the video I saw of last years festival, the crowd was decidedly smaller.  Probably a third of last year.  We stood back and observed as things wound down.  I’ll have to get the (short) videos up here soon.

The objective of the festival and ceremony, as I understand it, (and please feel free to correct me, I may be full of it) is this:  Peace.  The monks build a giant pile of straw and grass, and attack it with various weapons (a sword, arrow, and axe if I recall), thus releasing the violence of this world upon or into it.  They then burn it, destroying it, and then spread the ashes around and tread upon it to complete their “victory” over it….

But how could we possibly come to a festival and NOT get some of the food.  We took home for dinner a container each of yakisoba, takoyaki, and okonomiyaki.  We’d missed most of the festival, but I think we came away with what we were after.  Not the food (so much) but a little slice of the experience anyway.  It was nice to see Takao in its springtime clothing as well.  Maybe next time we’ll hit closer to fall when the leaves are turning….

Back at the apartment it was time to relax after the amount of walking we did.  More importantly we had to figure out what we were going to do tomorrow.  The *plan* was to either get back to Enoshima, or do some train hopping around Tokyo itself….  If only it were that simple.  Tomorrow was Monday, you see….  well, I guess you’ll just have to keep reading….

Next: Sardines, Shibarikyu, and Pokemon!

No related posts.