A story about three middle-aged guys climbing Mount Miwa, eating gyoza in Tenri, and coming home

Yesterday, I went to visit Omiwa Shrine in Nara with my middle-aged friends, T-kun and M-da-kun, and we climbed Mount Miwa, which is the shrine's sacred object. I say 'middle-aged friends,' but M-da-kun is 32, so he's more of a middle-aged apprentice (T-kun is 38, so he's a proper middle-aged guy). By the way, I am 53, and I will be 54 in May.

T-kun is always doing something, and although he misunderstood the meeting place this time (he went to the Kintetsu Nihonbashi station platform instead of the subway Nihonbashi station platform, but we managed to meet up safely at Tsuruhashi), he arrived on time, which was impressive.

After praying at the worship hall of Omiwa Shrine, we moved to Sai Shrine, where the climbing entrance is located. The climb starts at 9:00, but we arrived a little after 8:30, so we had some time. There was a haraigushi (purification wand) for self-purification at the Omiwa Shrine worship hall, and instructions on how to use it were written there. M-da-kun found it and was purifying himself like crazy. That same M-da-kun said he wanted to buy an amulet at Sai Shrine and was listening intently to the head priest's explanation, so when I asked him what was wrong, he said that, well, things were just really crazy.

Usually, one might ask for details, but both T-kun and I have experienced most 'crazy' things, so the conversation ended there with a simple 'I see.' I don't know about T-kun, but for me, the starting line for something being 'crazy' is at least being abducted by aliens.

Anyway, we were able to climb safely to the Okutsu Iwakura at the summit of Mount Miwa. Perhaps because of my age, I couldn't quite keep up with their pace this time and had to have them wait for me a few times, but physically, I had no problems at all.

By the way, there are three main Iwakura (sacred rock formations) on Mount Miwa. The lowest one, the Hetsu Iwakura, is dedicated to Sukunabikona-no-Mikoto; the middle one, the Nakatsu Iwakura, is dedicated to Okuninushi (Onamuchi)-no-Mikoto; and the Okutsu Iwakura at the summit is dedicated to Omononushi-no-Mikoto. In the Nihon Shoki, Omononushi is considered to be the Kushimitama (wondrous spirit) of Okuninushi, but looking at how they are worshipped on Mount Miwa, I get the feeling that they are different gods. Also, Okuninushi is sometimes called Onamuchi, but 'Onamuchi' means 'holder of many names,' and Okuninushi has many other names. I suspect that various separate gods were integrated under the name Okuninushi, but even considering that, the fact that they are worshipped separately suggests there is a proper distinction between them.

However, in any case, since Iwakura worship was practiced on Mount Miwa long before it took the form of a shrine, no one knows what kind of god the original god worshipped at the Iwakura was. I find that mysterious.

Marche on the approach to Omiwa Shrine

After finishing the climb up Mount Miwa safely, we took a look at a marche being held in a vacant lot along the approach. The chewy donuts were delicious. By the way, if you walk from the Otorii gate toward the shrine along the approach, there is a vending machine selling crepes on the right near the end of the approach, and the crepes here are incredibly delicious. The price is also cheap (250 yen for a regular one, 300 yen for a special one), so if you find it, you should definitely, absolutelyeat one.

These are the colorful horticultural corn we were shown at the marche. It's strange because it's not a gradation of the same color family, but a mixture of red, blue, yellow, and green. Even if you plant the bluish ones, the corn that grows might be yellowish, so you don't know what color it will be until you grow it. By the way, this is unrelated, but the waxy corn sold at Niku no Hanamasa also has a mix of whitish and bluish ones, and it looks a bit similar. Waxy corn is delicious. The taste is bland, but the texture is addictive. Also, for some reason, it doesn't get stuck in your teeth when you bite into it.

To Tenri

Leaving the marche behind, we took the Manyo Mahoroba Line (JR Sakurai Line) to Tenri. Tenri City is, as everyone knows, Japan's largest religious city. Or rather, it might be the only religious city in Japan. Tenri City is Tenri City because Tenrikyo is there, so the whole city is based on Tenrikyo. From the moment you get off the station, you are already in a Tenrikyo religious space. The title image of this article was taken for me at the facade of the Tenrikyo headquarters temple, with T-kun on the left and me on the right. M-da-kun, who took the photo, was dead drunk at this point, but he was impressive for keeping the shot level.

This time, due to time constraints—or rather, because M-da-kun was dead drunk and I didn't want to be rude—we didn't go inside the temple, but you are free to enter the temple even if you are not a believer. It is one of the largest wooden buildings in Japan, and I think you will be quite surprised the first time you see it even from the outside, but if you visit, you should definitely take a tour inside. It is a masterpiece. Experiencing the piety of the believers and the laid-back atmosphere will also be a good experience.

A place that makes you realize this is the correct answer for gyoza

Going back in time, the first place we visited after getting off at Tenri Station was the holy land of gyoza, 'Gyoza no Tengaya,' which sits under the station's elevated tracks. We happened to enter this shop when the three of us came to Tenri before, and it was so delicious that we talked on the way home about how we could come all the way to Tenri just to eat gyoza next time. Naturally, we planned to eat gyoza here from the start this time.

Look at it. Isn't it beautiful? Gyoza doesn't need wings. I polished off 1.5 servings, T-kun 2.5 servings, and M-da-kun 3 servings. While eating gyoza, T-kun and M-da-kun started drinking beer. I don't drink, and I can't drink. Alcohol is a drug that ranks higher than marijuana or stimulants. If you ask me, a drinking party is a drug party.

Setting that aside, I was teasing M-da-kun, who was becoming increasingly talkative as the beer flowed. Just as I thought he was talking about how hard it was to have almost no days off until around June, he said, "Well, after that, I'll finally be on my own and free, haha," as if he were delivering the punchline to a story. Neither T-kun nor I had any idea what he meant, so when we asked, he said, "Well, I hadn't mentioned it before, but I'm getting a divorce," and M-da-kun laughed with a sheepish look on his face.

In short, that was the terrible situation he had been talking about. Since he had been saying for a long time that living with his wife was impossible, neither T-kun nor I were particularly surprised. However, I was a bit surprised that he had been talking as if we already knew, even though he hadn't told us. No wonder there were so many times when I had no idea what he was talking about.

Well, that aside, he's getting divorced after about five years of marriage, but T-kun, for instance, got divorced in two months, so I think it's perfectly normal. Personally, it wasn't bad news for me, as it seems like M-da-kun will have more opportunities to go out and have fun once he's on his own.

Bonus: A story about how three middle-aged men might be connected from a past life

This is a bonus section, but I'd like to write about something a bit mysterious. T-kun, M-da-kun, and I met at a massage parlor where I used to work, and it's possible that our meeting wasn't a coincidence, but rather guided by a karmic connection from a past life.

The story goes back 23 years, to when I was 31. I was working in Tokyo at the time, and I visited an Indian psychic named Narendra. I've written about that in detail in in SPIRE, so please read it if you'd like. That story is also quite mysterious.

In that article, I wrote about the reading I received from Narendra, but to tell the truth, there is one thing I didn't write there. That is the story about my most recent past life. I didn't write about it because I thought that no matter who I was in a past life, claiming it would be an egoistic act and would deviate from the concept of in SPIRE. Besides, just because Narendra said so, there's no way to verify whether it's true or not.

Furthermore, when we talk about our past-life selves and our current selves, that "self" refers to the causal body, or the soul, and while the people living in each era are karmically connected, they are just "ego" (body-mind mechanisms). Since both the ego of a past life and the ego of the present life are illusions, there is no meaning in one ego worrying about another.

Admittedly, it is also a fact that the reason your current body-mind mechanism exists here in this way is due to the karma of other body-mind mechanisms that lived in the past. However, you don't need to know that past karma. This is because all the karma you need to face is in your life, and the chance to overcome that karma is also here. Whatever that karma may be, the past body-mind mechanism couldn't fulfill it, so knowing what kind of body-mind mechanism it was won't benefit you. After all, you are a newer version of a body-mind mechanism than that one. And above all, the reason we usually can't remember our past lives is because there is no need to remember them.

So, please just think of this as a tall tale.

Now, here is what I was told by Narendra about my past life.

"You were a samurai in Kyushu during the Edo period who protected people who believed in Christianity."

By the way, Narendra doesn't speak Japanese, so he had his Japanese wife interpret for him. At first, when Narendra muttered something to his wife, she tilted her head as if to say, "Hmm? What does that mean?" but after exchanging a few words with Narendra, she finally seemed to understand and conveyed it to me as written above.

What came to my mind when I heard that was a Christian daimyo, and I suppose his wife also arrived at that conclusion from Narendra's words. I don't think Narendra himself knew the word "daimyo" in Japanese history, and it seemed like he was struggling to explain that part in his interaction with his wife, but in any case, he didn't explicitly say "Christian daimyo," but rather a "samurai" who protected people who believed in Christianity."daimyo" "samurai".

That was all Narendra said about my past life, and most of the reading was about the story I wrote in in SPIRE. Therefore, I didn't hear any explanation about how the karma from that past life affects my current life. Or rather, I didn't ask anything more because I didn't care about the past life story myself.

I had forgotten about this past life story ever since, but I suddenly remembered it recently, so I looked into it a little bit. First of all, as a premise, I don't know if I was a daimyo or a samurai serving a daimyo, but the only clue I have to look into is a daimyo (specifically, a Christian daimyo). Besides, protecting people who believed in Christianity in that era would have been impossible without considerable status and power, so I thought it would be fine to assume I was a daimyo for now.

Another clue is "Kyushu in the Edo period." Actually, Christian daimyo existed from the Azuchi-Momoyama period, preceding the Edo period. So, excluding the Christian daimyo of the Azuchi-Momoyama period, the only candidate for a Christian daimyo who actually existed in Kyushu during the Edo period was one person. Arima Harunobu is his name.

The Hinoe Domain in Hizen Province is the area around present-day Shimabara, Nagasaki Prefecture. Arima Harunobu ended up being forced to commit seppuku due to various circumstances, but his successor, Arima Naozumi, changed the territory during his tenure. That was the Nobeoka Domain in Hyuga, which is present-day Nobeoka City, Miyazaki Prefecture.

Returning finally to the story of T-kun and M-da-kun, to put it bluntly, T-kun is from Nobeoka City, Miyazaki Prefecture, and M-da-kun is from Shimabara. While reading Arima Harunobu's Wikipedia page, I only thought, "Speaking of Shimabara, that's where M-da-kun's family home is." However, I happened to read the page for his son, Naozumi, and was genuinely surprised to see it written there that his domain was transferred to Nobeoka.

When I told the two of them about it later, their reaction was unexpectedly, "Well, that makes sense." In particular, T-kun's ancestors were apparently hidden Christians who disguised themselves as warrior monks, and T-kun does indeed have an appearance that reminds one a bit of Benkei. Although there is a significant age gap between us, there is no hierarchy, and certainly no master-servant relationship. I like that about us, but I don't know how Arima Harunobu interacted with people. I think I might read a biography of him at some point, but honestly, I'm not very enthusiastic about it.

In fact, even with such strange coincidences piling up, the name Arima Harunobu doesn't ring a bell for me at all. So, perhaps it was one of Harunobu's middle-management samurai who was my past life. However, even before looking into this, I had wanted to take a slow trip to Kyushu to look around. I don't know if such an opportunity will arise, but if it does, perhaps I will remember something then.

Well, that's the end of the bonus story. By the way, I do talk about occult and spiritual topics with those two in a style similar to Monthly Mu, but I never talk about the things I write on in SPIRE or note. However, I have a premonition that at some point in their lives, they will both become interested in that level of spiritual talk. I might not be alive then, but what I have written will likely remain. I hope they will read it when that time comes.

Thank you for reading until the end. See you in the next article.