Sunday morning hike

Tetsu and Choco and I took a unplanned hike this morning.  Choco decided we needed to go for a walk at 5:30 am this morning and as we started out Tetsu suggested we drive over to the hills nearby and walk up behind the temple there.  In the 25 years of living here, though I've always known there is a hiking course, I've never been up it myself.

So instead of walking the 30 minutes over to the temple, we drove over just as the temple gong was ringing out 6:00 am.  Even from our house in the mornings we can hear the gong ringing out over the countryside and though it conjures up the image of a robe-clad monk meditatively striking a large bronze bell, actually the ringing is a recording.  Oh well... the kindergarten church's bell chimes are a recording too...

Anyway, we started up the temple's walking path that headed upwards into the forest.  The path was well marked especially as there are 88 small stone statues along the way guiding hikers...  Each statue had a offering sieve in front of it and I think the custom is to put pennies in each of the cups as you hike up and back down the mountain...

It is interesting to me that at the top of the mountain there is a Shinto shrine.  Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines reside besides each other cooperatively and one doesn't really know which area of the sacred grounds are which.  This is true at the major temple/shrine areas as well as in homes where the family will have a Shinto altar directly over the family's Buddhist altar.  Choco was pooped after her hike up the mountain (as were Tetsu and me... swimming and hiking use different muscles.)

Although the morning wasn't very clear, this is a shot of the countryside where I live...  Our house is probably off to the right there past the river and behind the trees somewhere.  We arrived back at the temple parking lot by a bit after 7:00 so it wasn't a very strenuous hike.  I know that some of the neighborhood children will make the hike and draw out maps and take pictures of the statues as part of their summer independent study.  I'll have to ask if my own children have ever gone up there.