Ancient lifeforms and epic views
All up on Japan's most spiritual mountain
Today on WAORYU! ONLYinJAPAN
Do you know what the cure for boredom is?
Adventure
My father would say to me when I was young
It's actually a rough approximation from a quote from a 1980s classic movie,
"Never Cry Wolf"
And I highly recommend you check it out
Now those words have stood the test of time for me
Whenever I feel uninspired, non-creative,
If I can remember to get out and experience nature what it has to offer,
I immediately find that state of mind to turn around
Japan is an excellent place to do so
With so much undiscovered and so much beautiful mountains and shrines,
and spiritual places,
That's where we head out today
Once again I'm reminded of the potency of nature
Hi guys, welcome to another video today
Thank you very much for joining us
Cities of Japan, amazing
Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, all wonderful
But we should never forget when we are surrounded by such beautiful nature as well
to get out into it
I'm joined by Luke today
In a very special place
So today we have come to Mt.Kurama
which is famous for the Kurama Temple
Kurama temple is one of the most important temple in all of Japan
It's also said to be the birthplace of Reiki
which is type of spiritual healing practice
We're going to start at the foot of the mountain
and make up the way to where the temple is,
And be rewarded with a fantastic view
And we're going to make our way down the other side
Sounds good, let's get going
Not knowing very well, I was lucky to have Luke there
Because he drew my attention what you would not want to miss at the start
The first thing you notice when you leave the station is the massive TENGU statue
TENGU, for those who don't know are mystique figures from Japanese folklore
They have really long noses,
and said to body the spiritual power of the mountain
Now the famous samurai from the late Heian period to the early Kamakura period,,
Minamotono Yoshitsune
was set to endure really hard training from the lord TENGU himself right here
I'm a man of complete self control
So it was absolutely Luke, and not me,
who said that we couldn't continue unless we tried some of what they have
You may, or may not have heard
the Japanese love their character
so love associating sweets to their characters
So the region's character here is the TENGU
They have a delicious strawberry icecream dedicated to the TENGU
And I've got the USHIWAKAMARU white coffee ice cream
If you remember MINAMOTONO YOSHITSUNE
Ushiwakamaru was his childhood name
If anyone deserves and icecream, he does because he endured harsh training
It's called white coffee and it's pretty accurate
It's a mix of white chocolate, coffee beans
I taste hints of vanilla as well
It's really refreshing
Mt.Kurama is not your average hike
That becomes apparent the moment you step through the initial gate
Within a minute you're greeted with an ever-increasing number of fascinating structures,
and points of note along the path
As you progress up to the temple,
you encounter some interesting features
Here, there are 3 massive cedars
The tallest of which is 53 meters
And it is over 800 years old
There was also something else which Luke pointed out, about the surroundings
That's right. Although we're making our way out to a buddhist temple,
on the way you encounter a number of SHINTO shrines
Now Buddhism and Shinto are separate religions,
which co-existed throughout Japan's history,
only formally separated in the 1800s
Now this particular shrine was founded in 940
And the building behind it has been unchanged since 1607
It's really odd
Crazy
Following the Cedar trees you enter into a series of switchbacks
There because, without them,
the incline of the path becomes so severe,
become impassable
When you go to a shrine or temple in Japan you often see these lanterns here and there
Now these lanterns are people or companies,
donated to bring good fortune
Now this lantern was donated by the place we got our ice cream at the beginning
Now when I said that you will be treated to a spectacular view,
make no mistake about it.That is not at the summit
You can stop at any moment of the hike and
treated to the most beautiful scenery you have ever seen
We made it to the top
and we promised you guys to a great view
so that's what you're exactly going to get now
What you are seeing now is across to Mt.Hie
And if you enjoyed the hike today
I'm told it's equally beautiful in it's own way
And there is well some interesting details to know about the temple
Right into the hall of the temple,
you'll see a stone symbol engraved to the ground
And in the center of that symbol is a triangle
Each point of the triangle representing one of the 3 deities worshiped at the temple
Each deity represents "TRUTH",
"MERCY"
and "COSMIC ENERGY"
Now its said if you stand in the middle of the triangle,
You're suppose to feel a surge of cosmic power radiating within you
Which I'm sure it's the master sword, if you know anything about that
That is like a piece of Tri-Force, isn't it?
It was impossible not to notice the number of fallen trees
and what the size of the trees that have fallen
Luke brought to my attention that they were caused by the typhoon that had come to the are some years ago
It was humbling to see such power exerted on these trees
When you look at the roots you see they would never come out of the ground but
That's the power of mother nature
After it's all set and done guys,
the thing that sticks out the most is that,
I was shocked that I had never heard of this before hanging out with Luke
It's that amazing
And it reaffirms what we said at the beginning,
that there is so much value in pushing out beyond your door,
going off these unbeaten paths,
exploring these beautiful green spaces in Japan
And we have one bonus tip at the end
We're not going to tell you what exactly it is,
because we want you to have very personal experience with it,
but once you get to the main temple
actually you go downstairs,
and find something really really special there
so I hope you enjoy it
Thanks for watching the video, guys
Really really appreciate it
I'll see you down in the comments below
And take care out there
Until next time