Before 2009 came to its sudden halt, I went along with a group of aikidoka and friends to hike Nijouzan (Mt. Nijo), which is situated in Nara prefecture overlooking Osaka to its northwest and Nara city to its northeast.

Our sojourn started by assembling at 8:30 AM at the Kintetsu Abenobashi station, and from there we set out to a small train station not far from our starting point, which is where we met up with friends of Nanami who joined us for the rest of the journey. I should note that I also brought along Zack Kaplan, a foreign exchange student from the United States who studies at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. I know from playing Go in the United States and am fortunate enough that his studies bring him close to Osaka for a year!

Rob Hori was a little delayed getting to the rally point in Osaka, so we linked up with him shortly after we arrived in Nara prefecture, just before we went to visit Harubi Temple, which is also where our hiking trek up the mountain began. We departed the temple at 10, just on schedule — and there, slowly but surely, began the ascent!

By noon, I think everyone was huffing and puffing enough from the climb, so we stopped for lunch, and were treated to a fantastic view of Nara to the northeast.  From our lunch stop, we continued to the summit (517 metres in altitude), then descended a bit and reascended to the public park (474 metres) at which a monument to the historic ruins once found on the site was erected.  It’s a beautiful sun-dial, the points of which represent both the cardinal directions and the signs of the Chinese zodiac.  I am a bit partial to the rabbit, since it’s my Chinese zodiac sign.

Although the hard part of our trek was done, we still needed to descend to the base of the other side of the mountain, and it was pretty steep in parts.  However, we were able to take a moment to see the remains of an ancient temple carved into the side of a stone face.  Next to the main religious monument was a carved-out grotto, which Nanami took to be her own for a little while.

At the end, we all got a nice reward, because we were all able to go to the Taishi Onsen and soak our weary bodies for a couple of hours before heading back to Osaka. It was a most excellent way to spend the day!