SLEEPING IN THE ROOF OF THE GENTS TOILET AT THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN OF DEATH, TOHOKU PROVINCE,JAPAN
Forest God he fond of joke, no?
Find me nice Japanese girl who
book me luxury hotel room. Huh.
Rolled into Haguro-san on a sopping wet afternoon, so also sopping wet (well, the waterproofs were doing their job, so I was dry underneath). Over 10 hours on the trot since leaving Gassan, the Mountain of Death, at 7 am this morning. Covered 20 miles ... I know Stefan (my son) will happily walk 25 with tent and clobber, but his legs are 25 years younger than mine.
Haguso-san, Mountain of Birth; Gassan, Mountain of Death; Yudono-san, Mountain of Rebirth. Of course, I`m doing them the wrong way round. I didn`t notice that that`s what they represented, the 3 holy mountains of Dewa, till I`d completely missed rebirth and ended up dying. It does say so in my hiking guide, but I`d somehow missed that bit. I didn`t mean to die before I was born, honest! Also, the recommended hike I was following, from the same guide book (Lonely Planet/Hiking in Japan), doesn`t actually go over Yudono-san, Mountain of Rebirth. By the time I`d noticed this, I was halfway up Gassan, Mountain of Death!
Bypassed Yudono-san. Shit!
Missed rebirth yet again.
Guess I`ll have to make do with this life
Then again, that-which-must-not-be-spoken-off (Yudonsan jinja shrine - traditionally you have to keep silent about what you see there), is, and again I hadn`t realised it, is at the very start of the hike, OK, the start of the hike is, literally `halfway up the mountain` but I`d thought `halfway up the mountain` meant `halfway up the trail`. So I`ll have to keep silent about what I saw, `cos I saw nothing! Fucked up again. Ａｈ well.
Muddle through.
Do everything wrong.
That`s life.
Some people act as if they know what`s what.
They don`t
Pale crescent moon over Yudono-san
I left Tsuruoka on the 9.17 bus from stop no. 2 outside the station. I`d stocked up with processed cheese, processed pork sausage, furanso bread (French bread), joghurts, bananas, apples, chocolate (gimme a break! I`m not going off for 3 days in the Japanese wilderness with god-knows-what-the hell-is-it food!). Left the rest of my baggage with the mama-san at Nara Ryokan, promising to return Tuesday or Wednesday if a bear hadn`t got me.
As I was waiting at the bus-stop, the lady from the information office rushed up. Was I aware that there was no accomodation en route, and that there was no bus connection from the other side of Gassan to the start of Hagurosan? I thanked her for her concern in flawless Japanese and assured her that I had full mountaineering gear, was a practised walker, and that I doubted that even the Mountain of Death could match the Welsh Black Mountains on a bad day, with wind so strong you couldn`t walk into it, but had to sort of sidle sideways, and raindrops hitting you like bullets. Er, did I say `flawless Japanese`? Well, what actually happened was that we did this little dance around each other, smiling, bowing, gesticulating and pointing.
The trip up to the start of the hike - Yudono-san san rosho - took the better part of an hour, for most of which I had the bus to myself apart from 2 little old peasant women who looked as if a puff of wind would blow them away, but probably worked all day in the rice paddy with their grandchildren strapped to their backs. They could`ve been no more than 4 ft high stretched out, but as they were bent double they were just off the ground.
Two missionaries emailing in the Marica Department Store
in Tsuruoka
Something about them
Evil
Every Japanese road I`ve been on has had road crews all over it, fixing, mending, building. Japan has 4 distinct seasons, it`s hot and muggy in summer, they have torrential rain and metres of snow up here in winter, not to mention the odd earthquake. Everything is constantly sliding downhill and needs to be fixed. The road the bus took was a small, old one, winding around the contours to pick up and deposit peasant women and countryfolk. It reminded me of my childhood in Jamaica, going up the winding road to Newcastle. As I was mostly alone in the bus, the driver appointed himself my tour guide, pointing out traditionally thatched farmhouses, deep gorges, beautiful waterfalls, and slowing down for me to take pictures (can you imagine a Bristol busdriver doing that??). We rejoined the main road and it leapt over gorges, burrowed through outriders, flung itself over 100m deep streambeds; round the corner, the massive curtainwall of a dam. How do they build these things? It`s a funny society - half bent over peasant women and the height of hi-tech infrastructure design and maintenance. An infinite capacity for taking pains, hard work and attention to detail. Perhaps as necessary to design a 100m high road bridge as it is to engineer waterflow and construct paddy fields to grow rice.
Punctilious in every respect they may be
But their backyards
are just as ramshackle as everyone else`s
Eventually ground up the hill to sight the great Torii (red gateway) at Yudono-san san-rosho. Got off bus and was immdiately accosted by concerned gentleman. Was I aware that there was no accomodation open en route and that the bus connection ... I somewhat wearily nodded. I should rush up Gassan in 3 hours, he recommended (his English was good) and rush down. Then I`d be back before it got dark. I`d still miss the last bus out, but I could spend the night at Yudono-san san-rosho in the nice hotel (30 quid). To reassure (read `get rid of`) him, I assured him that if there was nowhere to sleep on top, I`d come back down and do what he said. I had no intention whatsoever of doing so. I was going to commit myself to the mountain god and see what happened. I was going to go up Yudono-san, sleep at Kaji goya on top of Gassan then walk over to Haguro-san the following day, a total distance of some 36km. Yes, I`m all for paying attention to locals who know the local conditions and people`s genuine concern for one`s safety - but what do the gods know of that? They demand you trust them and take the consequences. But don`t think I hadn`t prepared meticulously. I had full mountain gear, 3 days food and water, waterproof Gortex boots with Vibram soles, hi-intensity LED headlamp (courtesy of my Jamaican friend, Simon. Wha`appen, pork?! He`d have loved to come with me. Sorry, pork!), guide book with map, compass, first aid kit, lightweight sleeping bag, thermal top, long johns, fleece - and a picture of my wife and kids (!). Trust in the gods - but keep your powder dry! Mountains punish irresponsibility or disrespect!
Cast about for beginning of trail, then take off, missing that-which-I-can`t-say-a-thing-about-cos-I-ain`t-damn-well-seen-it (translate THAT into Japanese!). Almost immediate steep, rocky climb, in some stages more of a scramble, with ladders rivetted to the rock in the later stages. The guide book says something about `rusty iron ladders` and I`d been looking forward to death-defying scrambles up sheer rock faces on disintegrating ladders, but, alas, the infrastructure boys had been at them, too, and they`d been replaced by brand new aluminium ones with a helpful handrail for the pilgrims. Chains to pull yourself up with as well. Damn! No exposure, either, I was surrounded by a tropical riot of vegetation - small bamboos, maples, dwarf beech, grasses.
Chain up Yudono-san
to help others
towards redemption
Come out of ladder section, turn left at toilet (! either the Japanese have weak bladders or they like toilets - they`re everywhere!), have lunch on big rock next to stream. As I wind slowly up the hill, the vegetation changes to swathes of dwarf maples, massed, or in small clumps eveywhere. Here, it`s already autumn and the leaves are this unreal red, yellow.
Maple leaves already red, yellow
as I make my way up Yodono-san
to be reborn
I climb to a high ridge and come to a T-junction. A battered wooden sign, I decide after much comparison with Kanji in the guide, reads `Yudono-san`. But which way is it pointing? There`s no arrow and no-one around. After much headscratching and perusal of book, which says, `Yudono-san lies in front of you` I decide the sign`s pointing to the left. I plod off up the track andm after a while, chance upon a lone hiker, a tough-looking older man with a red rucksac. "Yudono-san wa doku desu ka" I ask. He points DOWN the trail! S-H-I-T!!! The sign was signing what was behind it, not pointing anywhere!
Yet again missed
rebirth
- have to make do with this life, I guess
Also, Yudono-san is not `in front of you` as the guide book says, but to your right!
Hey you Lonely Planet guys
you made me miss rebirth!
You`re gonna pay for that!
Oh, 12.99
Too late for recrimination. It`s then that I notice, as well, that I`m doing the route the wrong way round (well, the guidebook recommends the trail the wrong way round). I`m doing Rebirth, Death, then Birth, whereas the usual way round is the opposite!
Story of my life.
According to everyone else,
`he did things the wrong way round`.
Let that be my epitaph:
`He did everything the wrong way round`
As my father said: "Don`t go back, go on!" I go on.
From Rebirth to Death
I climb Gassan
I meet only one other walker. I think he must be a yamabushi, a `mountain ascetic`. They undergo purification rites on the mountain involving sleep deprivation, a strict vegetarian diet, reciting sutras under freezing waterfalls etc. This guy approaching is not dressed yamabushi style, but has a funny structure on his back, which I decide is a ceremonial garb or some sort of esoteric costume. We draw level. The `esoteric structure` turns out to be a pair of skis!
Ho haha hee
yamaboshi on skis
monkey mind can`t see what it sees!
I express astonishment but he assures me there`s snow up the mountain` (footnote: I never see any!). I arrive at the top of Gassan at around 3.30. At Kaji-goya, a few feet below the summit, there`s a random collection of prefabricated buildings which must be where people can normally stay, eat, etc. They`re all shuttered and bolted against the winter weather (masses of snow and terrible winds!), the shrine complex tops the peak. I cast around for somewhere to doss: try shutters, but they`re all solid, obviously; go round back - where they keep the gas cylinders there could be a useful gap where the prefab side comes near the ground, anything better? New toilet block nearby, let`s check it out! I pull on the outer, metal shutter outer door - it sldies away left. Yes! Now, now, now, pull tentatively on the inner door. ... It slides away also to the left. Yes! I`m looking into a bright new toilet lined with sweet-smelling pine. Fine, stage 1 secured. Looks like there`s a loft ... bright metal rungs go up invitingly to an open trapdoor. I climb up them, stick my head through - hallelujah, praise the mountain god! I`m looking at a snug space of about 15X30ft, clean flat boarding floor, 4 small frosted glass windows to let in light,. completely wind and rain-proof! That`s it, sussed for the night. Ta, whatever your name is, mountain god!
(tbc)
Forest God he fond of joke, no?
Find me nice Japanese girl who
book me luxury hotel room. Huh.
Rolled into Haguro-san on a sopping wet afternoon, so also sopping wet (well, the waterproofs were doing their job, so I was dry underneath). Over 10 hours on the trot since leaving Gassan, the Mountain of Death, at 7 am this morning. Covered 20 miles ... I know Stefan (my son) will happily walk 25 with tent and clobber, but his legs are 25 years younger than mine.
Haguso-san, Mountain of Birth; Gassan, Mountain of Death; Yudono-san, Mountain of Rebirth. Of course, I`m doing them the wrong way round. I didn`t notice that that`s what they represented, the 3 holy mountains of Dewa, till I`d completely missed rebirth and ended up dying. It does say so in my hiking guide, but I`d somehow missed that bit. I didn`t mean to die before I was born, honest! Also, the recommended hike I was following, from the same guide book (Lonely Planet/Hiking in Japan), doesn`t actually go over Yudono-san, Mountain of Rebirth. By the time I`d noticed this, I was halfway up Gassan, Mountain of Death!
Bypassed Yudono-san. Shit!
Missed rebirth yet again.
Guess I`ll have to make do with this life
Then again, that-which-must-not-be-spoken-off (Yudonsan jinja shrine - traditionally you have to keep silent about what you see there), is, and again I hadn`t realised it, is at the very start of the hike, OK, the start of the hike is, literally `halfway up the mountain` but I`d thought `halfway up the mountain` meant `halfway up the trail`. So I`ll have to keep silent about what I saw, `cos I saw nothing! Fucked up again. Ａｈ well.
Muddle through.
Do everything wrong.
That`s life.
Some people act as if they know what`s what.
They don`t
Pale crescent moon over Yudono-san
I left Tsuruoka on the 9.17 bus from stop no. 2 outside the station. I`d stocked up with processed cheese, processed pork sausage, furanso bread (French bread), joghurts, bananas, apples, chocolate (gimme a break! I`m not going off for 3 days in the Japanese wilderness with god-knows-what-the hell-is-it food!). Left the rest of my baggage with the mama-san at Nara Ryokan, promising to return Tuesday or Wednesday if a bear hadn`t got me.
As I was waiting at the bus-stop, the lady from the information office rushed up. Was I aware that there was no accomodation en route, and that there was no bus connection from the other side of Gassan to the start of Hagurosan? I thanked her for her concern in flawless Japanese and assured her that I had full mountaineering gear, was a practised walker, and that I doubted that even the Mountain of Death could match the Welsh Black Mountains on a bad day, with wind so strong you couldn`t walk into it, but had to sort of sidle sideways, and raindrops hitting you like bullets. Er, did I say `flawless Japanese`? Well, what actually happened was that we did this little dance around each other, smiling, bowing, gesticulating and pointing.
The trip up to the start of the hike - Yudono-san san rosho - took the better part of an hour, for most of which I had the bus to myself apart from 2 little old peasant women who looked as if a puff of wind would blow them away, but probably worked all day in the rice paddy with their grandchildren strapped to their backs. They could`ve been no more than 4 ft high stretched out, but as they were bent double they were just off the ground.
Two missionaries emailing in the Marica Department Store
in Tsuruoka
Something about them
Evil
Every Japanese road I`ve been on has had road crews all over it, fixing, mending, building. Japan has 4 distinct seasons, it`s hot and muggy in summer, they have torrential rain and metres of snow up here in winter, not to mention the odd earthquake. Everything is constantly sliding downhill and needs to be fixed. The road the bus took was a small, old one, winding around the contours to pick up and deposit peasant women and countryfolk. It reminded me of my childhood in Jamaica, going up the winding road to Newcastle. As I was mostly alone in the bus, the driver appointed himself my tour guide, pointing out traditionally thatched farmhouses, deep gorges, beautiful waterfalls, and slowing down for me to take pictures (can you imagine a Bristol busdriver doing that??). We rejoined the main road and it leapt over gorges, burrowed through outriders, flung itself over 100m deep streambeds; round the corner, the massive curtainwall of a dam. How do they build these things? It`s a funny society - half bent over peasant women and the height of hi-tech infrastructure design and maintenance. An infinite capacity for taking pains, hard work and attention to detail. Perhaps as necessary to design a 100m high road bridge as it is to engineer waterflow and construct paddy fields to grow rice.
Punctilious in every respect they may be
But their backyards
are just as ramshackle as everyone else`s
Eventually ground up the hill to sight the great Torii (red gateway) at Yudono-san san-rosho. Got off bus and was immdiately accosted by concerned gentleman. Was I aware that there was no accomodation open en route and that the bus connection ... I somewhat wearily nodded. I should rush up Gassan in 3 hours, he recommended (his English was good) and rush down. Then I`d be back before it got dark. I`d still miss the last bus out, but I could spend the night at Yudono-san san-rosho in the nice hotel (30 quid). To reassure (read `get rid of`) him, I assured him that if there was nowhere to sleep on top, I`d come back down and do what he said. I had no intention whatsoever of doing so. I was going to commit myself to the mountain god and see what happened. I was going to go up Yudono-san, sleep at Kaji goya on top of Gassan then walk over to Haguro-san the following day, a total distance of some 36km. Yes, I`m all for paying attention to locals who know the local conditions and people`s genuine concern for one`s safety - but what do the gods know of that? They demand you trust them and take the consequences. But don`t think I hadn`t prepared meticulously. I had full mountain gear, 3 days food and water, waterproof Gortex boots with Vibram soles, hi-intensity LED headlamp (courtesy of my Jamaican friend, Simon. Wha`appen, pork?! He`d have loved to come with me. Sorry, pork!), guide book with map, compass, first aid kit, lightweight sleeping bag, thermal top, long johns, fleece - and a picture of my wife and kids (!). Trust in the gods - but keep your powder dry! Mountains punish irresponsibility or disrespect!
Cast about for beginning of trail, then take off, missing that-which-I-can`t-say-a-thing-about-cos-I-ain`t-damn-well-seen-it (translate THAT into Japanese!). Almost immediate steep, rocky climb, in some stages more of a scramble, with ladders rivetted to the rock in the later stages. The guide book says something about `rusty iron ladders` and I`d been looking forward to death-defying scrambles up sheer rock faces on disintegrating ladders, but, alas, the infrastructure boys had been at them, too, and they`d been replaced by brand new aluminium ones with a helpful handrail for the pilgrims. Chains to pull yourself up with as well. Damn! No exposure, either, I was surrounded by a tropical riot of vegetation - small bamboos, maples, dwarf beech, grasses.
Chain up Yudono-san
to help others
towards redemption
Come out of ladder section, turn left at toilet (! either the Japanese have weak bladders or they like toilets - they`re everywhere!), have lunch on big rock next to stream. As I wind slowly up the hill, the vegetation changes to swathes of dwarf maples, massed, or in small clumps eveywhere. Here, it`s already autumn and the leaves are this unreal red, yellow.
Maple leaves already red, yellow
as I make my way up Yodono-san
to be reborn
I climb to a high ridge and come to a T-junction. A battered wooden sign, I decide after much comparison with Kanji in the guide, reads `Yudono-san`. But which way is it pointing? There`s no arrow and no-one around. After much headscratching and perusal of book, which says, `Yudono-san lies in front of you` I decide the sign`s pointing to the left. I plod off up the track andm after a while, chance upon a lone hiker, a tough-looking older man with a red rucksac. "Yudono-san wa doku desu ka" I ask. He points DOWN the trail! S-H-I-T!!! The sign was signing what was behind it, not pointing anywhere!
Yet again missed
rebirth
- have to make do with this life, I guess
Also, Yudono-san is not `in front of you` as the guide book says, but to your right!
Hey you Lonely Planet guys
you made me miss rebirth!
You`re gonna pay for that!
Oh, 12.99
Too late for recrimination. It`s then that I notice, as well, that I`m doing the route the wrong way round (well, the guidebook recommends the trail the wrong way round). I`m doing Rebirth, Death, then Birth, whereas the usual way round is the opposite!
Story of my life.
According to everyone else,
`he did things the wrong way round`.
Let that be my epitaph:
`He did everything the wrong way round`
As my father said: "Don`t go back, go on!" I go on.
From Rebirth to Death
I climb Gassan
I meet only one other walker. I think he must be a yamabushi, a `mountain ascetic`. They undergo purification rites on the mountain involving sleep deprivation, a strict vegetarian diet, reciting sutras under freezing waterfalls etc. This guy approaching is not dressed yamabushi style, but has a funny structure on his back, which I decide is a ceremonial garb or some sort of esoteric costume. We draw level. The `esoteric structure` turns out to be a pair of skis!
Ho haha hee
yamaboshi on skis
monkey mind can`t see what it sees!
I express astonishment but he assures me there`s snow up the mountain` (footnote: I never see any!). I arrive at the top of Gassan at around 3.30. At Kaji-goya, a few feet below the summit, there`s a random collection of prefabricated buildings which must be where people can normally stay, eat, etc. They`re all shuttered and bolted against the winter weather (masses of snow and terrible winds!), the shrine complex tops the peak. I cast around for somewhere to doss: try shutters, but they`re all solid, obviously; go round back - where they keep the gas cylinders there could be a useful gap where the prefab side comes near the ground, anything better? New toilet block nearby, let`s check it out! I pull on the outer, metal shutter outer door - it sldies away left. Yes! Now, now, now, pull tentatively on the inner door. ... It slides away also to the left. Yes! I`m looking into a bright new toilet lined with sweet-smelling pine. Fine, stage 1 secured. Looks like there`s a loft ... bright metal rungs go up invitingly to an open trapdoor. I climb up them, stick my head through - hallelujah, praise the mountain god! I`m looking at a snug space of about 15X30ft, clean flat boarding floor, 4 small frosted glass windows to let in light,. completely wind and rain-proof! That`s it, sussed for the night. Ta, whatever your name is, mountain god!
(tbc)
posted by waveringbats at 10/06/2005 04:26:00 am
1 Comments:
Vow! Was completely gripped by your trekking up the mountins, even or because of you climbed it the 'wrong' way around. Kinda like the idea of dying first then being born - one can look at it metaphorically & spiritually - we have to die first, our egos and illusions, then we are born - new, clear eyed...
Keep walking...
Keep writing...
+ hope you slept well on the roof of the gents toilet, amazing you found space there to sleep!
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