Omine San - midnight hike !!

Last weekend Mika's dad invited me to go hiking to Mount Omine in the Nara Prefecture. Mount Omine is a famous place not only because it's a world heritage site but also because women have never been allowed on the mountain. It has the repution of being the most sacred mountain in japan.

We started the hike up the mountain around 10pm to view a ceremony that started around 3am. The ceremony was to close Ominesanji temple until about June next year. I didn't think it would be a difficult hike because it was at night and most of the yamabushi climbing it were quite old. I was certainly suprised by how difficult it was. It took about 3 hours to get to the top and a lot of the way were very steep stairs. It was typical mountain weather too. At the bottom it was hot and humid. about a quarter of the way up it was very comfortable and then as we got closer to the top it got very cold, windy and wet. Cold wind is just great when you're clothes are soaking wet from sweat.

Once up the top it was quite amazing. there were about 6 large building that had seating for around 300 people each, beds and heating. I guess this is the accomodation for each group when they come for training. We rested for about an hour and then went and watched the ceremony. Most of the ceremony was based around fire and was visually spectacular but couldn't understand anything else going on. I got to go in the back of the temple to watch the yamabushi diong there prayers in different chambers of the temple that was very interesting. Once finished we started the hike back down the mountain still in the dark.

On the way down Mika's fathers batteries went flat on his headlamp but luckily he had a spare set but then about 5mins later my headset also went flat. After falling on my ass once i remembered my camera flash takes 4AA batteries so a quick change and we were all set again. We arrived at the bottom around 6am, went back to the hotel where mika and her mother were staying and soaked in the onsen (hot bath) for about and hour, had a few beers for breakfast then went to sleep.

me below the gates that basically says no women

It was one of the most difficult things i've done in a long time and my legs were still aching for days afterwards but it was one of those experiences you can never pass up.