Yudonosan the mountain of rebirth, and mummies of ascetic monks, Dewa Sanzan, Japan
Over dinner yesterday evening, we told the host of our guesthouse in Haguro village, that we planed to climb Mount Yudonosan on the last day of our visit. His eyes got wider, he whistled and tilted his head sideways in the Japanese expression meaning 'no way,' and said : "Mmmmm....Vely, Vely difficult..." From further inquiries, we figured out that he did not mean that climbing Mount Yudonosan was impossible, but that to get there and back to Haguro village afterwards, was not an easy task. The local bus runs only four times per day to and from Tsuruoka City, and we might not be able to come back. Yudonosan mountain is usually climbed in one go with Mount Gassan. From the summit of Mount Gassan, it takes only another two and a half hours to descend to the temple shrine of Yudonosan. But we had already climbed Mount Gassan the day before, and instead of going down by w