up Bizan

I hiked up the mountain, called Bizan (literally, Eyebrow Mountain) near my apartment building today. The entrance to the trail is a length of stone stairs that runs by a shinto temple and beneath a torii (one of those arches with the slanty tops). Up another long flight of stairs is a larger temple complex, and beside it, the trail begins. I hiked up the trail, which is lined with small statues of deities and buddhas in small stone houses with triangle roofs. Small coin boxes sit at their feet. Some even have little brilliantly colored scarves tied around them. I met a monk draped in brown robes with some women dressed in white along the way, sweeping off the statues and collecting the coins. When i arrived at the top, the view was quite expansive. The same enormous neon spiders claimed the area, and some webs even housed their smaller mates (probably males). The croaking of Asian crows could be heard from within the foliage. The wailing of different cicadas was primarily a constant, but by now i fail to notice them as much. Some sound much like car alarms, with siren-like repititions and buzzing clicks. There was a pagoda at the top that had photos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the bombs and various religious paraphernalia. At the very top was a small shrine with offerings of plastic-packaged foods, little rice gluten cakes, and even cigarettes. I suppose the Buddha enjoys a smoke after his feast of salted rice snacks and fruit jellies.