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