III. The Mountain of Flames. . .Flaming Knees, that is.

On Saturday I tackled the first major test of the pilgrimage, the dreaded temple #12, Shosanji. The name translates to Burning Mountain Temple, due to the legend that Kobo Daishi subdued a fire breathing serpent at the summit using holy Buddhist incantations. Not sure how much of that is true, but what isn't debatable is the challenge of the climb．This is the first gut check of the pilgrimage. Do you really want to do this? Can you? Would you climb a mountain to accomplish your goal? How about 3 MOUNTAINS IN A ROW IN ONE DAY? Still sound appealing? Well does it? YOURE WORTHLESS, YOURE LESS THAN NOTHING!!! WHY DONT YOU JUST QUIT?!?!?

 CAUSE I GOT NOWHERE ELSE TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whoa sorry about that. It's just that this climb was pretty brutal. I still have nightmares about it. The three consecutive mountains were like a bunch of annoying minibosses you have to fight again and again before the main boss every time you die. What really killed me though, was the downhill portions. Going uphill is strenuous, but going downhill is tedious, painful, dangerous, and mentally exhausting. You`re already burnt out from climbing the mountain, so you have to concentrate that much harder to keep from slipping and falling and being in a world of pain. And you have to do that 3 times in one day. Screw you Shosanji!!! I`m going back to Okudaya guest house, I don't need you. Except I do. More than anything. Anyway I did it, check facebook for the pictures. There were some awesome statues up there. After the hike I went to Kamiyama Hot Springs, they had this really weird water that felt kinda slimy. . .but it felt good too. Don`t take that out of context please. That`s about it for now.