Remember the time we accidentally climbed that mountain?

"Light hiking." That's what it was supposed to be. Light. I guess I was up for some "light" hiking. I was up for all kinds of light activity the day before leaving Japan: Light shopping. Light snacking. Light napping, even. But what we got was not light. It was damn serious. I just wish we had known we were going to do it.

It's not like Tomo's friend didn't tell us. She did. The Shugenja Trail. A trail made by the Shugenja. Got it. We just had no clue what that meant. Turns out, she didn't either - she had been invited by a mutual friend, who was a semi-professional climber. This was 'light' for her.

The mountain, Homan-zan, is a well known 'power spot,' and has been for centuries. The shrine at the top was originally built during the Tenmu era, 673-686 AD. One of the shrines at the base was to the founder of Shindo Muso Ryu, Muso Gonnosuke. This guy was serious. He fights Miyamoto Musashi, loses, and comes to Homan-zan to pray and meditate on his loss. In fact, he meditates in one of the mountain's caves, 'Fuchi no Kutsu,' to realize why. The story goes, he prayed and meditated until he got a 'divine stick,' and came up with Jodo - the way of the stick (Shindo Muso Ryu, for short).



Now, granted, I should have known better, I mean it is called the Shugenja Trail, right? It isn't called the Hello Kitty Trail, Totoro's Trail, or the Super Floppy Sock High School Action Trail, it's called the Shugenja Trail. And it is called this for one reason alone: the Shugenja were nuts. And at no time during this hike do you ever forget that.

You see, the trail is, in fact, built out of rocks. Rocks that make steps. Big ones. Big rock steps up the side of a mountain. An 830 meter high mountain (2723 feet or a little more than half a mile straight up). But the trail winds more than 2 kilometers (about a mile and half) up the side of said mountain. It took us three hours to summit. An hour and 45 to make it down.

And remember, we had no idea we were going to do this. We were completely unprepared. Tomo's wearing her tiny Puma shoes, we've half a bottle of water between us, the rocks are slippery and steps steep. Any slip would have made for a very bad ending to a great trip. By the time we realized where we were and what we were doing, it was just too late to turn back.


















All in all, it was a fine day. It's nice to know we can climb a mountain at the drop of a hat, even if there was a little gnashing of teeth (okay, my teeth). But, hell, no one got injured. And when we came down, the girls drank purple Shiso drinks. I had a coconut-mango smoothie. It was awful.

Oh, and we heard from Tomo's friend. She couldn't walk for two days.