Yesterday was another Japanese national holyday. They sure like those here, which is alright with me! So some friends and I decided that we would take another hiking trip up this mountain in the perfecture of Yamagata called Yamadera known for its 1,000 steps and its beautiful sightseeing. I thought that maybe this mountain would have been more challenging then the other one on Monday where you had to use chains to lift yourself up a rock to reach the next step, but all we had to do today was climb up some stairs to a bouddhist shrine.

We were a large group and it was hard to stay all together, as some of us (like myself) couldnt help but take pictures of almost everything in sight along the way. I couldnt believe how gorgeous this place was. It was like nothing I had ever seen before! I felt like I was in a dream, or in What Dreams May Come. I was in complete awe! I have prepared here a few pictures of my excursion to give you a better idea of what I have seen, but no matter how well the pictures turned out, none of them can truly give justice to this beautiful site! I hope you enjoy these next few photographs :)

This morning Jason (my neighbour from New York) and myself left home at 9am to meet our friends at the local train station. The train station in Fukushima is not like your average station. It is quite a large spot, with many restaurants, nightclubs, famous Japanese arcade games, Kareoke bars and it also has some sort of a mall that sells expensive designer clothes (which is something I am going to be looking into today.) Since it is such a big place, it requires huge parking lots, not only for cars but for bikes too. And since every living Japanese owns a bike, you get a few bike parking spots that look like this one. I thought it was pretty overwhelming to see such a huge amount of bikes all packed in such a huge space. Nobody in japan really locks their bikes, even if they are left overnight. Bikes here do not get stolen, in fact stealing anything is seen as one of the biggest taboos around here.



We all left Fukushima in 3 different cars and it took us about an hour and half to arrive to the little town. It was funny watching my Japanese friends finding hard to understand the local's dialect as they were looking for a parking spot. Just like in Fukushima, this town was surrounded by huge foresty mountains that were probably twice the size of the ones here. I didnt know where to look, everything was just so beautiful. There were many little shops selling typical Japanese snacks, so we stopped by at this rice cake kiosk for a taste. They were like these really hard Toaster Struddles without the filling covered in sugar and a little salt. Quite delicious, but a little hard on the teeth.









I really had no idea that Yamadera was going to be a bouddhist shrine until I entered the gates. Of course, as always, me and a few other foreigner friends were the only white people around, so we got a few stares. It is afterall a very small town and Geijins are a rare breed in these parts of the wood. Eventually, you learn to ignore all of the staring and all of the people running into walls to take a better look at you (yes, it has happened). I dont think I have received this much attention in all of my life. It was really intimidating at first, but it is something that you eventually get used to. Appearantly, they think it is an honour to have foreigners come live or visit their small town. So I shouldnt be too worried. Here you have a few people from the group lighting up incents at the entrance of the shrine.



Along the way up the mountain we came across a few little shrines and praying spots. Many of them had a statue of the famous buddha. It took a while, but i finally decided to go rub his belly for luck. I was afraid to look disrespectful among all the other bouddhists and Japanese tourists, but I finally decided to give it a little rub! It was nice and smoothe and round and lovely... next step: my conversion to buddhism.



We also encountered many kiosks that sold fortunes for a 100 Yen. They were all written on this beautiful rice paper in old Japanese that my friend Ryota helped us translate. Some predicted long life, some wealth and some predicted life-long happiness (just like mine actually.) When you are done reading your fortune, the custom is to fold the little paper in four, say a little prayer and wrap it around the branch of a tree or a string for good luck. Many trees are just covered with them. It actually makes me think of the one scene in Lost in Translation when Scarlet Johanson's character crosses a shrine surrounded by some of these trees in Kyoto, probably one of the most beautiful parts of the film.


Most of the people that came along today were Japanese. We were only 4 foreign english teachers. Most of my japanese friends speak english fairly well. Most of them have travelled the world or have lived in English-speaking countries for a few years, either for university or for pleasure. The rest of the group are old english students that have studied english in university or in one of the many language schools accross the country. So it is nice to have a nice group of friends to who you can actually comunicate with but who is also rooted in japanese culture. And if you are wondering, most of them are soccer players for the English Fukushima team and I was invited one night by one of the players to come and check it out. They seemed a little hardcore when I went to see them last sunday night, but I am thinking that maybe I could slowly start playing soccer again (a game I havent played since elementary school... i think) Soccer is very big in Japan and has probably become the second National sport of the country after Sumo wrestling. Here are most of them, left to right Ryota, Kou, Ayako, Jaqueline, Emiko, Kayako, Ryuta and Kume at the bottom.





Here you have some happy Japanese hikers taking a break from climbing sitting at the steps of a praying post.








Mid-way we reached one of the monks "residents", if I can call them like that. My friend Jason thought it was a restaurant and we almost walked in (which could have been a little awkward.) They were just sitting all together on their tatami mats very calmly. I needed to take a picture of this just because it looked so typical. Then again, I didnt want to seem disrespectful towards them, but I took a quick picture and left. I was always afraid to look so ignorant. It is hard to know in these situations if anything you are doing is wrong or disrespectful. Then again, I am obviously a tourist and they probably understand that I dont know any better.





Like I said earlier, the climb was a piece of cake compared to the one we did earlier this week. The hardest part of the trip was to keep the whole group together. Some had reached the top way ahead of time. Here you have one part of the group climbing the last steps. In this picture you can see the profile of the mountains in the background and the clearing of the sky. (Ayako, Kume and Ryota)







Once at a the top we couldnt believe how simple it was to climb these famous 1,000 steps. We sat for a few minutes. Then we had the chance to hear and see a bit of a bouddhist ceremony. I will never forget this moment in my life. I couldnt see very well because we were sitting outside of the shrine, but the priests chants were hypnotizing and so much more powerful then what I had ever expected. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures, since I was told that one monk represented God itself and it was appearantly wrong to take a picture of God. I guess that made sense. Here I believe you have a picture of sacriligious omens and gifts, surounded by encarved stone. Appearantly, the engravings in these stones are short poems, commonly known as Haikus.





The view from the top of the mountain was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I know I keep on repeating myself, but I thought I had seen many nice things in my life before, but yesterday's sightseeing took the cake. So here are a few pictures of this amazing view.



























I took so many pictures at this one spot, but none of them turned out the way I wanted. You can hardly see the detailing of the mountains and the play on shadows.










Emiko, Mariko and myself in front of the stunning view.












Kirei! Beautiful....














After climbing to the top we were all starving. So we decided to got to one of the local restaurants for some Soba, a typical Japanese dish, a sort of soup with thick buckwheat noodles served either cold or hot.










We finished off the evening at Jason's apartment for a few drinks and some disco music... yep. Here are the boys and the girls.

Jason. Ryuta and Ryota strangling Dean, an English teacher from Hawaii.

Mariko, Kayako, Jaqueline and myself, looking a lot more civilized than the boys.

Wow, putting this all together really occupied a huge chunk of my time. Today, I am planning on cleaning my apartment, visit the shopping mall at the train station and later tonight we are having another big party for my birthday so that we can get the whole group together. Ill make sure to keep you posted on the event.

Hope this was interesting!

Ivanie