Fandom

Everyone has one.

The first anime/manga I called my favorite was Yu Yu Hakusho.  The 112 episodes released over middle school through most of high school were the first complete series I bought and hosted a marathon for.  It was the first custom shirt I had made.  Favorite character was the first phone charm I had/have.  Etc.

So when I found out at the beginning of the semester that my history class would be taking a trip to Mt. Hiei (that would be what one of the main characters, my favorite as it happens, was named after), you can imagine I was stoked.

I got up early Saturday, donned my layers, clipped on my Pokewalker, packed my bag (making sure to bring my knee brace), made myself some oatmeal and tea to soothe my throat and headed out the door.

I missed the bus I wanted to be on.  Saw it driving away as I rounded the corner as I often do.  The next one wasn't for another 20 minutes, so I figured rather than sit around for that time, I'd walk to the next stop.  That only took 2 minutes, so I walked to the next one... and the next one... and the next one and was eventually only 4-5 stops from Hirakatashi eki when the bus finally caught up with me.

In the station, I bought my ticket for the end of the line and rode along with two others from the class who were planning on climbing the whole mountain.  We arrived and got our bearings.  They headed off to the next train; I hung out at the station to wait for the rest of the students on the trip.  They trickled in, eventually followed by the professor who gave us the run-down of shops in the area to buy our lunches at.  I picked up a couple croquettes from a bento shop and a package of sandwiches.

Then we were on the train!  It was packed, but it seemed not many people were actually going up the mountain.  We got off at the cablecar stop, bought our tickets, waited a bit and got on.  The car was slanted and I definitely picked the wrong side to sit on (because even in the middle of nowhere, the transport is jam-packed) since there were autumn-colored leaves along the other side of the car and rock wall against the side I was on.

We reached the top and congregated for a bit.  There was a suspended hula hoop for people to throw clay frisbees through for good luck (though no one made it while we were there).  There was an old incinerator that was wired shut.  It was interesting to see.  The professor got a call from the two I'd ridden over with; they'd missed the trailhead and were just then starting their ascent.  He said good luck catching up and the rest of us started our climb to the picnic spot.

It was a 20 minute walk or so and we found a really random plant.  No one knew what it was, but most of us were sure it was poisonous (you can judge for yourself, or tell me what it is, if you know).  We got the professor to poke it with his walking stick for kicks.

Past that was an abandoned artificial ski slope, complete with abandoned lodge.  Only one of the windows was broken and there's still a TV, skis, boots and whatnot inside.  It was kinda creepy, actually.

Then we reached the lunch spot.  There were three benches made of logs covered in aluminum.  I took a seat on a stump on the side of the mountain next to the professor.  It was misty/smoggy, so the view wasn't great, but you could still make out Kyoto in the distance.  It was peaceful... then the wave of elementary school kids hit.  The two that climbed the mountain caught up and we gave them some time to eat before continuing on our way.

We stopped at a giant rock with images of the Buddha and those presenting the sun and moon.  Behind it was a cemetary.  There were two ninja graves that weren't with the rest of the plot.  They totally snuck up behind people paying attention to the mass of headstones.

Farther along, we stopped at a spring which is supposed to have 'magic water' that failed to cleanse the fever of one of the historical figures we studied.  It's housed and locked up, but if you stand by it, you can hear it bubbling.  Next to it was a roadside monument with a mess of cranes the professor's daughter made to fight her troubles with anorexia.  He'd hung the mass two years ago and they were still there.

Then we got to Enryakuji temple.  It was rather pretty, especially with all the maple leaves in their autumn color.  There were several water harps you could hear if you were quiet and right next to them.  The way I understand it, the harp itself is underground and water drips from above to make the musical notes.  It's really beautiful.  I headed for the bathroom and had no shame in using the handicap stall to avoid the squat toilets (which smelled really bad and were really dark when you closed the doors).  Then it was up into the main temple, which wasn't really interesting, so I went back outside and took pictures of the shoes left by the door.

The handrail was skateboard-proofed (or at least intelligent skateboarder-proofed; I imagine some idiots would still think they could manage).

At a lower section, there was a bell visitors could ring.  It was quite loud if you got enough force behind it.

We entered one of the older buildings and you could literally see the incense in the air.  There was so much of it.  I had to cover my face after a few minutes like I do with smoke; it was just that strong.  We had to take our shoes off to enter that section as well, and discovered they had heated floor mats, which was really nice because the wooden floors were FREEZING.

Up the super-steep stairway to a pagoda (where my camera died, despite my having just put in the second set of batteries), we were urged to go inside and check out the sculptures at the top.  If I thought the stairs up were steep, the stair/ladder in the pagoda were vertical.  It was a little tricky, but I managed neither to fall nor whack my head on the narrow trap door openings.  My phone was low on charge, so I couldn't even take pictures with it.

And then we started our descent down the other side of the mountain.

I put my brace on before we started.  It didn't take particularly long.  Our "trail" was actually a creek bed (or maybe the creek bed had overtaken the trail) and was pretty easy to navigate, though the rocks could occasionally be treacherous.  30-40 minutes into it, both my knees were about to give out.  I was leading the pack, so when we reached a wide, relatively flat spot, I suggested we stop and wait, which all but two guys thought was a great idea.  We were there for 10-15 minutes before the professor finally caught up.

We were actually 50 meters or so from the end of the trail.  We got a nice view of Lake Biwa before heading down a set of stairs into civilization, the train station and heading home.

Sunday morning, I lugged my computer downstairs to work on my biography paper for history, which I think I'll post here when I'm done; it's entertaining.  Okaasan made fried rice for lunch and headed out to shop.  I worked on my paper for a couple hours before finishing taking down the rest of the wallpaper panels she'd started a day or two ago.  There's definitely mold in the corners of the ceiling and I'm not sure if I inhaled any or not.

She got home, emptied out the cabinet and started me on another section of wall.  There's only a handful of panels left, but both of us were tired and Otousan was due home from the horse race track.  He was surprised at the state of the living room and then we went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner.  It was definitely Chinese... in Japanese style.  It was tasty.

Back at home, we watched the Japan-America women's volleyball match (Japan won; apparently the US is #2 in the world rank right now, so it was an upset) and then the Bucket List.  When it first came on, it was dubbed in Japanese, so I went back to working on my paper.  A bit later, I realized I could understand what they were saying.  Okaasan had changed it to English with Japanese subtitles.  Japanese TV is so much cooler than American.



Strangest things in
vending machines.



No, seriously.
The strangest things.