Day 69 - Mount Mukabaki, And A Tsunami Alert, The Kyushu 108 Temple Pilgrimage, Japan

 

Day 69 - Mount Mukabaki, And A Tsunami Alert, The Kyushu 108 Temple Pilgrimage, Japan 

Today was our last day in Nobeoka, and we decided to go visit Mount Mukabaki.

Our plan was to take the bus to the mountain, visit the shrine and then walk back to central Nobeoka.

The bus station is located near the train station, where they have a Starbucks cafe inside the Tsutaya Bookstore.

Before taking the bus, we sat and had tea and bought some scones to eat for our tea break during the day.  For our lunch, we bought Onigiri rice balls and a fresh persimmon.

Mukabaki Yama is a great place to go hiking.

The empty bus dropped us off at the old shrine, and we saw many cars parked at the beginning of the hiking trail.

We had no time for doing a summit hike that would have added about 3-4 hours to our walking plan.

Before our walk, we visited the shrine.

Located in a beautiful forest with many old and magnificent trees, Mukabaki shrine is at the southern foot of Mt. Mukabaki in the western part of Nobeoka City.

It is an historic shrine, founded in the year 718 by transferring the deities  from Kumano Taisha Shrine in present-day Wakayama Prefecture. 

The enshrined deities are Izanagi no Mikoto, Izanami no Mikoto and Yamato Takeru no Mikoto. 

Being called Mukabakidake Sansho Daigongen (the Great Three Gods of Mt. Mukabaki), the shrine was worshipped by the successive lords of the Hyuga domain.

The huge grounds are covered with densely grown trees, among which is sited the main hall, in a tranquil atmosphere. 

The trail up Mt. Mukabaki starts right from the shrine.

Mt. Mukabaki is not very tall, only about 813 meters, but it is a fine mountain with a precipitous flat cliff, which looks like a folding screen. 

It got its name when Yamato Takeru, the Japanese prince, visited this place to fight the Kumaso tribe and said that the mountain looked like a “Mukabaki,” which was a piece of fur loincloth that was used to wrap around the waist.

There are two rocky peaks, believed to represent female and male energies.

In the shrine, we walked around the old growth trees.

There were ancient trees that have become one.

This phenomenon defies everything we have learned about trees.

Anyone who loves gardening like we do knows that when you plant trees, you must plant them with enough space to allow them to grow, so they don’t have to ‘fight’ for nutrients and sunlight.

The common belief is that one of the trees would die, if you plant them too close to one another.

But here in the forest, as well as in other parts of the world, we saw the exact opposite of this idea.

Two trees grew side by side until both became giants.

Then as their trunks became very wide, they became one, wrapping themselves around each other until their bark and roots became one big and very healthy tree.

Usually, we see this occurring among trees of the same species.

But here in Mukabaki, we saw two different species of trees that have become one.

This phenomenon is well known as hybrid tree grafting.

There are many types of plants and trees that can be grafted including fruit trees such as apple, cherry, and citrus, and other trees like birch, beech, ash, spruce, and cedar varieties. 

Flowering and vegetable plants can be grafted also, specifically, roses and tomatoes are commonly grafted plants.

But for it to naturally occur in nature without the help and intentions of people, is pretty rare.

After paying our respects to the gods of the mountain, we started to walk down through the forest.

At the edge of the forest we came upon a Beer brewery that advertised making dark ale chestnut beer, which we had to try.

We have never had chestnut black beer, but it was too early in the day for a beer, so we bought two bottles to have at dinner.

They wrapped them for us in a padded envelope and we stuffed them in our day pack.

Soon we left the forest behind and walked by many farmhouses and many fields.

The road was mostly quiet with only an occasional car.

The plants along the way were lovely, and we enjoyed the birds of prey and the rural villages.

At lunch time, we stopped at a shrine to eat our lunch.

We sat on the wooden stairs in the shade and had our tea afterwards.

Then we joined the path along the Gokase  River that flows all the way from Takachiho through many mountains to Nobeoka and to the sea beyond.

When we entered the city, we continued to walk by the river, and with the tall weeds, ducks and reeds growing on the banks, we could hardly hear or see the city around us.

We spent the late afternoon in the Tsutaya bookstore, drinking tea and buying incense to freshen up the air in some of the smelly inns we will be staying at along the way.

Back in our inn, we lit the incense and sat for dinner.

It was our last night in the inn, and the owners wanted to take our photos.

Even though they get a lot of Japanese guests staying, they don’t have any foreign guests.

We went to bed after dinner.

I fell asleep around midnight, and only an hour later, sirens and alarms sounded all over the city.

The announcements were in muffled Japanese, and in my half asleep state, I could not understand what was going on.

I tried to go back to sleep, thinking that if it were something serious, like North Korea bombing Kyushu, or a major volcanic eruption, the owner of the inn would come to our door.

But nobody came, and the announcements and sirens continued all night almost hourly.

Finally, our iPhones and i-watches started ringing and buzzing alerts.

Apparently, two earthquakes occurred in the Philippines and the southern coast of Japan was put on Tsunami alert.

At first it was just a request not to go to the beach as the tide was rising, but soon it turned into an evacuation request for all the coast and estuaries around Nobeoka.

We were not staying directly on the beach and the river was a few blocks away.

I turned back to sleep, noticing that Jules was deeply asleep and didn’t hear the constant sirens.

My mind was overactive.

Will the trains run tomorrow? Or will the train tracks that often run along the coast, be damaged by the tsunami….

Will there be anyone in the temple that we will be going to tomorrow, which is located right on the coast… or will they have to evacuate…

Finally, I decided to say a prayer.

Acknowledging that I am a divine child of God with divine power and grace, I asked that my Higher Self and Divine Guardians and helpers sort all this for me by morning time.

Reassured, I finally found peace and slept.

Sending you waves of love,

Tali

Stats: 27,145 steps 

Today’s walk: 18.50 km 

Kilometers walked to date: 1171.5 km

Temples visited: none