On Saturday, I woke up with a mild hangover at 11:30. After a leisurely breakfast of Advil and coffee, I got my shit together and headed uphill.
Kozushima is fairly small and the jungle meets the village after about fifteen blocks. I puffed my way uphill, past gardens and chickens
and got to the trailhead. The trail itself has a beautiful entrance: tall pines acting as a sort of gateway into the jungle. Someone had thoughtfully left some bamboo walking sticks. I picked one out and started climbing.
Tenjo-san is only 572 meters ( about 1,876 feet) so it isn't a long or arduous hike. The walk through the jungle was beautiful. Gently rotting camellias dotted the trail, trees twisted around so as to form a canopy all around you.
The ocean sounded in the distance, and just when I would get a little lonely, these guys would greet me at intervals:
These statues are called Ojizo-san. They're all over the island, hidden away in little alcoves with offerings at their feet (coins, tea, Fanta grape soda). I was at the coffeeshop today and I tried to find out more about them. The proprietess spewed out a bunch of info on the little statues in Japanese, but could only say "Good luck" in English.
At the foot of Tenjo-san, there was a torii and another ojizo-san.
According to Fodor's, "..torii are meant to symbolize the seperation of the everyday secular world from the spiritual world of the Shinto shrine," but what the fuck do they know. It felt as if, once I crossed the torii, something magical was about to happen, all 'Princess Monoke' style. So I placed a coin in front of the ojizo, bowed, and passed through.
It was a bit of a letdown to run right into a group of tourists after that. They were amazed to see a gaijin on this lil island and they asked me where I was from. I gave them the usual America-jin eigo no sensei and they were all like, "Cool." One of the old dudes asked if I had a boyfurendo. I said yes and that he better watch himself or he'll kick his ass.
When I neared the top, I ran into a couple of coworkers, Ebihara-san and Fukuhara-san. Since I had such a late start, they advised me to get going to the mountaintop. I told them if I wasn't at the high school on Monday, to call the police. Fukuhara said, "You not school Monday, you dead. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" Awesome.
I also ran into these sweet ladies. I don't know if they were gathering herbs for their magic mountain potions or just doing a little maintenance work, but they fixed their hair and posed for me.
When I got near the top, it was super cold and windy, but man! What a great view. Different perspective of the island. My shitty digicam doesn't do it justice.
Supposedly, Tenjo-san is an active volcano, but hasn't gotten around to spewing anything since 833 A.D. Still, a moonage daydream was waiting for me when I reached the top.
I had landed on a solitary planet. Crows were floating in mid-air, riding a current. I walked to the end of the trail, called my man and told him I loved him. Seems like a mountaintop is as good a place as any to proclaim your love for someone.
There were more trails to explore, but it was getting dark and I didn't want to get stuck on the mountain. I could just see myself dragging my two broken legs down the trail, trying to remember how to say 'help me'. I'll be back, a little earlier in the day and not so much booze in my brain.
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