Hiking to Kakurinji

Here's how the conversation began:

David: Do you want to go hiking with some friends?

Me: Sure (My brain's reasoning: Hiking is walking, and I like to walk).

Editing for content after the hike: Hiking is only like walking when I hike by myself. And then it's not actually hiking. It's just walking in a place where there happen to be trees.

After our successful Bizan hike (and I say successful in that we reached the top. It was less successful in that I couldn't walk for two days afterward), David and I agreed to hike a taller mountain. It's two Bizans tall, and has at the top Temple Number 20 of the 88 Temple Pilgrimage Route.

A group of six of us took a bus out to the base of Mt. Something or Other and began to walk.

We didn't all take a bus - our friend Todd biked out,
climbed the mountain, and then biked home again.

It was a long trek to the top, but there were some beautiful bamboo groves along the way. There was also a small shrine, toward the bottom of the mountain, but after it was really too late to turn back. I think it's the official, "What-have-I-gotten-myself-into?" shrine.

The "What-Have-I-Gotten-Myself-Into" Shrine

The gate at Temple 20

Stairs up to the main temple

Pilgrims

When we got to the top, we decided that was not so bad; let's keep going. 

Unfortunately, "Let's keep going" means:

1. Hike down the other side of the mountain.

2. Eat lunch

3. Realise it's too far to go see Temple 21 and get back in time to catch a bus home.

4. Hike back up to Temple 20.

5. Hike back down the mountain again to the bus stop.

6. Be unable walk for four days afterward.

  It was so much fun, but maybe I'm not quite ready for four Bizans in one day!

A sudachi grove
( I'm ready for sudachi season again!)