Mt. Kurama: March 29: Part 3

You pay 200 yen at the gate for the entrance fee and they will give you a cute pamphlet of Mt. Kurama. (right picture) If you pay extra 300 yen, you get a little booklet of Mt. Kurama. (left picture) They do have pamphlet in English as well. This will come very handy because most of the signage in Mt. Kurama is in Japanese and if you don’t read Japanese, you need to refer to this little English pamphlet. (Pictures above are in Japanese.)

Those money you spend here at the gate or at the temple’s gift shop, it is used for the upkeep and the improvement of the Mt. Kurama. Temples and the road of Mt. Kurama is actually very well kept compare to other temples I went to in Kyoto. As you can see on a picture above, the lanterns have a very vivid orange color. It requires a lot of maintenance to keep it this way. My guide has been coming to Mt. Kurama for past 7-8 years and has seen a major improvement of this place. He thinks it’s because they are getting more and more Reiki visitors each year spending money here.

Another impressive thing about the Mt. Kurama is that there is no trash anywhere visible. They have a signage throughout asking people to respect the nature and not pick flowers or plants and to take any garbage home. I don’t recall seeing that signage in English, so I am letting you know now. If you do go visit Mt. Kurama please follow the rule I mentioned above. More rules and etiquette is on a pamphlet. I went to Mt. Kurama 3 times and did not see a single trash on a road.

For those of you who smoke, cigarettes ashes and butts also need to be taken home. They do sell a portable personal ashtray at many stores in Japan. If you know you have to smoke there, please bring your ashtray with you. (picture above is the portable personal ashtray in case you did not figure that out yourself)


One of the sad things I heard from my tour guide is that the some of the local people who goes to the Kurama temples for religious reason are not necessary too happy with the Reiki visitors. From what he said, sometimes when there is an event at the Mt. Kurama, people split up into two groups, religious and Reiki people. One of the reason they are not too happy with Reiki group is because some of the Reiki people does not respect some of the rules they have at Mt. Kurama. Some people don’t know the rules and not doing them on purpose, but I can see how it could be annoying for people who is following the rules and paying respect. I think it’s kind of like as a New Yorker sometimes we get annoyed by some tourists who are walking slow and blocking the whole sidewalk. (Even if you are not New Yorker, I am sure your town has some unknown rules that tourist does not know and annoy you.) So, I have decided to include a little tips here and there on my blog so you will be better prepared when you go there one day and make friends with local people.

Mt. Kurama: March 29: Part 2

Well, back to the Mt. Kurama. We took a train from Demachiyanagi station to Kurama station. It’s a very scenic ride. There were plum trees and cherry blossom trees blooming by the train tracks. At the train station, they do have a coin locker there as well if you want to leave some extra stuff you don’t want to carry up the mountain. I was lucky enough to have my guide warn me about wearing sneakers and wearing comfortable clothes. I did see some girls (that were not part of our group) wearing high heels and having a hard time walking. You could take a cable car up to the Kurama temple, but if you really want to get to the part where Master Usui meditated, be prepared to do a serious hike.

Kurama Train Station

Statue of “Tengu” (The Legendary Mountain Goblins of Japan) in a parking lot of Kurama Station. Mt. Kurama is known for stories with Tengu for Japanese people, not for Reiki. In fact, Reiki is lesser known in Japan than the U.S.

There are many steps just to get to the main gate of the temple and it’s just a beginning.

You want to make sure that you cleanse your mouth and your hands every time you come across water spots like this. This is to physically and mentally cleanse you to present yourself in front of God. The process normally calms you down and prepares yourself. Following is the proper etiquette for cleansing your hands and mouth.

1. Pick up a ladle with your right hand and fill it up. You only fill it up once and you will be using this water for the rest of the process.
2. Cleanse left hand by poring some water from the ladle.
3. Transfer the ladle to the left and cleanse right hand by poring some water.
4. Hold the ladle with right hand now and make a cup with left hand. Pour some water into your left hand and bring it to your mouth. (Please do not place ladle directly to your mouth.)
5. Rinse your mouth while you are covering it with your left hand
6. Hold the ladle with both hands and let the rest of the waterfall out by standing it up vertically.
7. Put the ladle back to where you got it.

By the way, I recommend carrying handkerchiefs in Japan. That’s what the most of the Japanese do. They use their own handkerchief instead of a paper towel to wipe their hands. Most of the bathrooms are not equipped with paper towel either. I completely forgot about it and had run out to get one the next day. I needed to air dry my hand every time I cleansed my hands at these water spots that day.

Mt. Kurama: March 29

Today I am going to Mt. Kurama with group of people I have never met. This field trip was organized by a Reiki salon called “Earth”. I was a bit nervous if I would fit in terms of the language and culture since I have been away from Japan so long. I also woke up with pain in my ankle since I walked so much the day before. Not a good start, but that was not going to stop me. I woke up bright and early. I don’t seem to be affected by jet lag at all. I have been going to bed 1-2am and getting up 7am past couple days without any naps. Since I am staying at Kurama Onsen (Inn) tonight, I needed to pack my sleep over stuff as well as my camera gear and some hiking stuff.


I arrive at the meeting spot (Demachiyanagi station) at 10:20am with 10 minutes to spare. I was told the organizer of this event is a middle age guy with shaved head. I don’t see anyone by that description, but I found a couple people who are dressed for hiking. I asked if they are going to Mt. Kurama for the Reiki field trip and they were. We introduced ourselves and started to chat. It seems like everyone in this field trip is a student of the organizer who is a Reiki Teacher. Some of the students knew each other, but not all of them did. So, I was not the only stranger. It was about 10 of us including a couple of kids. They were all about in their 30s to 40s and very nice people. I was stupid enough to buy many things at the Kurama temple, so I was carrying my camera bag, purse, and the paper bag from the Kurama temple. The people on a field trip, without my asking, kept holding my bags for me so that I can take photographs. Towards the end of the hike, it was a very slippery downward hike. I did lose balance couple times and was very thankful that I was not carrying the heavy paper bag with me.

To be continued...

I am back in the U.S.

I am finally back in the U.S. where I know how to use my cell phone and access the internet! I spent most of the last week and a half in a fog with a jet lag. Now my head is working, I am getting back into sharing my Japan trip. I wish I could have done this in real time, but my plan now is to backtrack through my trip and update this blog every 3-7 days. If you sign up for the mailing list, I will email you every time I update the blog. I did so much in those 18 days and cannot wait to share what I saw and learned!

Kyoto

Dear Reiki Photography Blog readers,
I just wanted to let you know that I am still here in Kyoto following my original itinary and more. I have so much to tell you, but I am on a computer at my hotel lobby with a time limit. So, I will keep this short. I will probably end up posting most of my trip when I go back to the states. I do not have internet access for rest of my trip.

Being at Mt. Kurama was amazing. I was able to send a short message from my cell phone to post here to let you know I was finally there. If you have requested a prayer, your request is completed. Has anything changed, did you fell anything? If you have requested post card, stay tuned. I have lots of great photographs to choose from.

I have experienced so many mini miracles in this trip, I really feel that I meant to be here at this moment. I cannot wait till I share these stories with you!

MT.KURAMA

I am at Mt.Kurama right now.

Take Off

Finally, I am leaving to Japan. I still cannot believe that I am going there. I have been so busy past couple month, time really flied.
I am at the Detroit airport waiting for my flight to Osaka. It was very funny that I heard “Usui” on the announcement as one of the person who needed to report to the counter at the terminal. I wonder is she is the ancestor of Master Usui.

I have added few things to my itinerary since I posted.

Kurama Onsen3/29
Kurama Onsen:
This is a sort of B&B with hot spring near Mt. Kurama. They will serve you a delicious dinner and breakfast. According to the website, they even have an outdoor hot spring. I will be staying there after a Mt. Kurama field trip. So far, I have a pretty good experience with them. The receptionist was kind enough to answer all my questions. You may think it's easy for me to get by in Japan because I am Japanese and speak Japanese. Well, it’s not true all the time. Since I speak the language and look Japanese, they expect me to know “Japanese common sense.” Things that they know to explain to the foreigner, they expect me to know them. Since I was only 17 when I left the country, I don’t know too many grown up agreements. I have been studying Japanese manners and etiquette past couple months.

Mt. Hizen 3/30
According to the Reiki Source Book, Mt. Hizen may be the place where Master Usui has done some studying with Tendai temple. Mt. Hizen also is a place where people visit as one of the holy mountain in Japan. Since it is not too far away from Mt. Kurama, if the weather is nice, I would live to go visit Mt. Hizen and experience it.

Usui Memorial Stone 4/1
I have been doing a lot of research on Kyoto and Mt. Kurama and waited till the last minutes to check out about Tokyo and Master Usui’s Memorial stone. I knew I wanted to go visit and take pictures there, but did not think much more when I decided to go there. As I started the research I was amazed how many people wrote about visiting this place in their blog. There were about 3 pages worth of google result when you enter Usui memorial stone in Japanese. It was very interesting to read about people’s experience of visiting the place and the ritual it took place. Some of them go there to pay respect to Master Usui, some goes over there to connect or talk to Master Usui, some of them goes there to read Master Usui’s accomplishment on the engravement. I found out there also is a whole ritual of visiting graves at the temples in Japan. Apparently, you clean the gravesite and the stone before lighting incense and leaving a flower. Some people even go around pulling out the weed and swipe the dirt with bloom around the gravesite. I am going to need to find out exact ritual from my Grandma before I go visit Master Usui’s Memorial stone. Now I read the entire posting from others, I feeling much more sincere about going to this place. I would like to pay respect and show gratitude for what Master Usui has brought to us. I feel really blessed that I have an opportunity to go there.

Harajyuku, Nakano, Shibuya, Shinanocho, 4/2
These are the location of Usui Reiki Ryouhou Clinics and Gakkai in the early days, Dr. Hayashi’s Reiki Clinic. According to the Tokyo subway map these cities are not too far away from each other and only few stations away from Usui Memorial Stone. I may not be able to go to each of them, but it will be nice to see what these places are like today. I am sure it is completely different from when master Usui and Dr. Hayashi were around.

I have not mentioned in itinerary, but I got hold of quite few of my friends that I have not seen in 9-16 years. Since I lost in touch with everyone in Japan for past 7-8 years, I thought I would be lucky if I see couple of them. Well, they all really want to see me and talk all night! I am very happy, but little concerned about my more than full schedule and jet lag. Please send me some Reiki energy (or whatever you do in other modality) to my health and time management for my trip! Thanks!

P.S.Here I am finally in Japan! I am still struggling to figure out the way to post my updates. Verizon promised me an internet acccess in Japan and failed, so I am looking for an alternative way to get internet access. Right now, I am at this very funcy internet cafe that is 30min walking distance. I don’t think I will be coming here too often. I also cannot send email to my reader who has signed up for my mailing list since I am not using my own computer. I am sorry for the inconvinience, but please check this site every few day for the update.