The Yamanobe-no-Michi: The Worst "Greatest Decision Ever" Part I

About midway through our stay in Nara, it was part of the program that we travel to Tenri, a nearby city about 15 kilometers away from Nara. We not only traveled to Tenri, but several other small towns in the countryside visiting various Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples.  To be honest, the names of the shrines themselves escape me at the moment, but what I remember most is that the last shrine we visited that day in Tenri was nearly overrun with ondori, an important symbol for that shrine.

After we visited this last shrine, our program activities for the day were over and we had the option to ride the train back to Nara with our professor or some of us had asked that we be allowed to hike back to Nara down the famous Yamanobe-no-Michi. This was a hiking trail through the Nara mountainside stretching the entire 15 kilometer distance back to our hostel.

Again, our estimation of distance sorely betrayed us as we failed to realize how far away 15 kilometers really was. We also overestimated just how well this trail was marked. Our professor had said that it would be fairly easy to find our way, however he could not have been more wrong. Myself, John, Peter, Steven and Kristin were the only ones who elected to attempt the hike back to Nara. After we said our goodbyes to the other students and our professor, we set off on what we thought was going to be an easy afternoon hike.

I sorely suspect we were directed down the wrong path to begin with, as the path we started down weren't very well kept and was denoted with a single lamp stone statue. We could not have been more than 15 minutes down the trail when we reached our first crossroads, one trail seemed to lead deeper into the heart of the mountains while the other seemed to skirt around. John, Kristin, Steven and I voted that we should take the mountainside path, but Peter obstinately insisted that we try the overgrown path, challenging our sense of adventure. Really we were just being rational. As we quickly came to the conclusion this was the wrong way when the path died at a stagnant pond.

This would not be the last time Peter attempted to lead us astray, as we will see in the next installment of this story. We backtracked and chose the trail that led around the side of the mountain, which also seemed to run parallel to the highway from Tenri to Nara. We were hiking before we came to what I consider the highlight of the whole day, a pristine lake nestled right in the foothills of the mountain.

We were in luck as the weather that day was particularly perfect, sunny with a few clouds and light breeze rolling across the water. Something about the halcyon scene really stuck with me and to this day I can remember the indescribable feeling I had as I looked out across the water. For me, it was transcendental; here I was, exhausted from our hike and running low on water, but something about the light rippling of the water's surface and the mountains reflected across its depths seemed to bring on a moment of clarity as we all sat in silence on the lake's bank, just taking it all in. The momentary respite and glory of nature rejuvenated us and we set off to finish our journey home, unaware that our trials were far from over and our hostel further still.

Useful phrase in this week's post:

ondori - おんどり - 雄鳥

meaning: rooster