Hiking up Atago-san
Last weekend the beautiful, and charming, Ella planned a hike for all of us. We got up early in the morning and headed to Kyoto to enjoy Japan’s beautiful natures (her words, not mine).
The trailhead was about a 45 minute bus ride from Kyoto station. Thanks to Ella’s careful planning, we got there easily and we were all ready to start hiking.
From the very beginning the hike goes up, up, up. It was well maintained and most of the uphill was on stairs, which definitely made it easier. But about 2.5 hours hiking up stairs is enough to make even the most fit person tired (and I am by no means the most fit person).
We took frequent breaks just to rest and enjoy the scenery, and also eat a typical Japanese hiking lunch of o-nigri (rice balls wrapped in seaweed).
It was a really hazy day so we couldn’t usually see much, but even with the haze we did catch a few glimpses of Kyoto in the background.
Also, while we were hiking we came across this really interesting miniature shrine built into a hollowed out tree.
Once we made it to the top of the mountain we were rewarded with a beautiful temple (Atago-jinja) to wander around. The temple had some of the most amazing wood carvings.
Even with all the beautiful scenery, we didn’t see much wildlife, which I was a little surprised by. However, on the hike down Aaron did find this little itty bitty snake. If I hadn’t stopped to give him a closer look I probably would have thought it was just an earthworm. He was about the same size.
Also on the way down we found another fun little shrine to explore and we saw a cool statue. I am assuming that it is a statue of Basho.
Once we were finished we took a bus back into the city. We filled our tummies with Nepali food. And we got on a train to come back to Gifu. We were all exhausted after our day of hiking, but not quite as exhausted as the salaryman that was sitting next to me. His head kept bobbing and swaying and a few times he came dangerously close to resting his head on my shoulder. It was pretty funny!
It was a nice hike, just the right length for a day, and it was a really neat temple to see.
I saw a Japanese invention once that would have helped this man.
It was a helmet with a sturdy chinstrap. The wearer would simply don his headgear, strap it on, then attach the suction cup on the back of the head to the wall behind his seat. Voila! Instant happy commuter love sleepy time! For healthy!