Trip to Moriumius, Oshika and Kinkasan - Day 3

 In this blog, I am going to be writing on the third day of my school residential trip to Moriumius, Oshika and Kinkasan.

After an amazing two days at Moriumius, we rose up early in the morning and bed a fond farewell to the Moriumius staff and thanked them for the wonderful time we had there. Half-dragging, half-lifting our suitcases behind us, we somehow managed to hop onto our buses and headed out to our next destination, Kinkasan!!.

In our three hour drive from Moriumius to Kinkasan, we passed through many mountains situated right next to the sparkling coastline. These mountains contain a variety of flora and fauna. As I casually glanced out of the window, I gasped in awe as I saw a spotted deer with huge antlers running away from us. Though I was sad that the deer did not come any closer, little did I know that I was in for a treat later on in the day. 

Kinkasan is a small mountainous island off the coast of Japan. In Japanese, Kinkasan means "The Gold Mountain". It was named so because the mountain was the first place in the entire Japan to have gold found in it. The island houses a famous Shinto shrine, which is thronged by people especially on festive days. A fun fact we picked up from our guide was that the island houses six people along with five hundred deer!! 

Crunching on gravel, our bus halted at the tip of Japan's Oshika peninsula, where after collecting our lunch, we boarded our ferry. I was really excited as this was the first time I was going travelling on a ferry in the Pacific ocean. Strong winds and ever-hungry seagulls blew and flew alongside us as the occasional salty spray of the sea water repeatedly cleansed our face and clothes. 

Finally, we reached the magnificent Kinkasan island. After we arrived the island, we first headed for the picturesque Koganeyama Jinja(Koganeyama shrine). On the steep climb towards the shrine, I noticed over seventy five deer standing together in a meadow grazing grass. As we proceeded, we found ourselves standing in front of the amazing 800 year old temple.

 After entering this holy place, the priests of the shrine, performed a special Onorito(A prayer chanted by the priests themselves to the deity on behalf of the worshippers) for us; and following the holy ritual, the priests took us on a tour of the temple and told us that the shrine was built to commemorate the first finding of the gold; and the principal deities in the Koganeyama shrine are called Ebisu and Daikoku. I was wonder struck on hearing these interesting facts and promised myself to study more about the Japanese religion.

Following our blissful visit to the sacred Koganeyama shrine as we were about to commence our hike, we had a surprise visitor, a deer!! It had come to see what we were doing; and most astonishingly, it let us stroke and pat it!! This led me to think that if we keep nature untouched and not disturb its plants or animals, we can all live together in peace and harmony like we did before. For our hike, we were split into groups of six students and accompanied by a teacher, we set of on our journey. 

Though it looked like an easy climb, we were soon panting for breath as the mountain grew steeper and steeper. As we clinged onto rocks and made sure we had stable footing, I paused for a second to see the scenery around me and I was blown away. The towering trees, a small winding stream, the sounds of different insects, the Pacific ocean far in the background all blended into one frame led me to be gobsmacked. As it had rained the previous day, the soil was full of leeches. This led us to check our hiking boots every ten seconds to see if any leech had crawled inside them. While the top of the mountain was getting within our hand's grasp, I noticed that the grass was so neatly trimmed as if a lawnmover had done that; but actually, it is the deer who eat the grass in such a manner which makes it look like it has been attended to. 

After successfuly crossing the summit which is 1460 feet above sea level, we started our way down the mountain; and we completed the hike in three hours. 

Following the wholesome hike in the Kinkasan mountain, we returnedto the mainland, and drove to our campsite, where we set up tents and sleeping bags. I was eagerly anticipating this as it was my first night sleeping under a tent. We ate our barbecue dinner which was lip smacking and I slowly drifted of to sleep thinking about my tiring yet fun and delightful day.

If you want to find out how I became an amateur in map and compass reading, please check out my next blog😃