Day 13 -

After leaving the cat in the rest area, we started up a path that would eventually lead us up the side of the mountain to the temple on the top. Just before the path started to rise, we found a cave with a statue of Kobo Daish inside. The sign said that a thousand years ago Kukai (Kobo Daishi's Buddhist name while alive) had sat in this cave to meditate. Now, there is only the statue.
At first the path provided a pleasant walk, paralleling the base of the mountain and moving in and out of little groves of trees.
The path was well marked. The white sign with red characters says, Henro Michi, or henro road. The aged wooden sign of the left says that it is 300 meters to the temple. This proved to be another of those signs like we had experienced before where the numbers on the sign bore absolutely no relation to the actual distance on the ground. The true distance was over a kilometer, with a rise of 155 meters. It turned out to be a pretty tough climb.
This is another of the signs marking the way. Notice what looks like Nazi swastikas. These are actually a 2500 year old Buddhist symbol and they are often found around temples.
As the path started up the mountainside, it was paved with fairly large rocks. These rocks require you to pay close attention to your feet. This awareness is an important factor in Buddhism so the Henro Michi is actually a practical seminar in awareness training. As I have noted before, I found that as we traveled, I became more and more centered on and aware of the moment. Thoughts about the past and the future faded away and my attention remained on where I was placing my foot. I wonder if real mountain climbing is like this.