Today’s guests were 9 of them, from
Argentina, East Timor, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico and Myanmar. We
decided to make the tour in two groups with 3 guides for each group.
We started the tour as usual with the explanation
of the statues of Sweeper Boy and Giant Flying Squirrel in front of Kiyotaki
station. Then we took the cable car up to Takaosan station. The tour seemed to
have started smoothly until when we found in the cable car that one of the
guests was missing. Arriving at the Takaosan station, one of our guides was almost
taking the return cable car down back to Kiyotaki Station to look for the missing
guest, when the guest appeared to our great relief from no-where. As the fact
that he was right there with us was important, no one asked him where he had
been but we all wondered.
From the Takaosan station, we took the
trail no.1 heading to Yakuoin temple and to the top of the Mt. Takao. On the
way, we visited and made explanation on various spots including Kasumidai
scenic point, Monkey Park, Takosugi, 2 different climate zones with different types
of trees, Josinmon, etc.
At the fork of the trail, we had an option
to go via challenging Otokozaka(men’s slope) or gentle Onnazaka(women’s slope).
Otokozaka has 108 steps and this number of 108 has special meaning in Buddhism,
namely it is the number of worldly desires that every human has.
We explained that it is said that by
climbing up these 108 steps, one could be purified and freed from those 108
worldly desires. Probably because they were already pure enough, all ladies in
one of the two groups chose Onnazaka, or it could be that they were just tired.
We visited Bussharito (stupa) and explained
about the stupa as well as the stone engraving showing Buddha’s life in 4
phases. We thank for interesting supplementary information and explanation given
there by an Indian guest who knew well about Buddhism.
When we arrived at Yakuoin temple, Goma
fire ritual was going on and we could see the ritual and the procession of the
Priests going back to their quarter after the ritual. The guests seemed to be
impressed with the ritual as well as costume of the priests and the sound of
trumpet shells they blew.
We arrived at the top of the mountain
around noon and went to the usual place for lunch. But the place was a bit too
wet because of the recent rain, so we went back to the open space under the
shade at the top. After the lunch, Chiko san, one of our guides, gave all the
guests Orizuru (folded paper crane) that she had prepared for them. The guests
are all very pleased and thanked her.
After taking photo of us all together on
the top, we started going down. We took the chair-lift that proved to be very
popular among the guests. As they enjoyed the ride with the beautiful scenery all
around, many of them bought the photos of themselves sitting on the chair. We
arrived back at the Kiyotaki station around 2:pm.
Though we could not see Mt.Fuji today, we, guides
and guests, thoroughly enjoyed the tour - natural beauty, history and
conversations/communications.
We thank all the guests for this good day
and we hope today’s tour would be a part of their good memories in Japan.
Written by Nori
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