Fumi ishi 踏み石 is Japanese for "Stepping stone"
This is about the joy of making myself move
I've lost count of how many times I've climbed it since my wife and I moved back to Kannami with our two boys some going on seven years ago now. I first climed Daisen-san--Mt. Daisen--with the boys shortly after we moved to the Hirai area of Kannami. I'm guessing it's been a good seventy years or better since someone put in the road going partway up it, built the stone pagoda and shrine, huge roofed structure with the freak'n huge brass bell, made the hiking course with benches along the way and such on the mountain. There's still an old weathered sign on the side of the narrow residential road points to the trailhead. The trailhead is a small paved road, if you can still call it "paved". No upkeep's been done for years if not decades--not on the hiking course, the huge buddha and 12 Chinese zodiac animals carved and cemented into the giant stone side of the mountain facing the valley, none of it.
I remember that first climb well because my older boy yelled "Dad snake!" just in time for me to grab his little brother to keep him from stepping on a mamushi--a Japanese pit viper! A rattlesnake's rattle-less asian cousin. All the hiking paths have long been reclaimed by the mountain so I keep a keen eye out for those things ever since that first pit viper run in. It's the suzumebachi giant "yak killer" hornets that I look out for the most though. They're the biggest hornets on earth. Good gosh I hate coming across those things.
In fall and winter the chances of getting swarmed with giant black and white striped mosquitos that'll leave you with a welt the size of a quarter or crossing paths with suzumebachi giant hornets or mamushi pit vipers are slim to none. Thus I tend to climb it a lot more when the weather turns colder; days like yesterday and today for example.
Home from teaching the sole morning business class of the day yesterday with no kindergarten classes or private adult lessons scheduled I was free till afternoon classes save for printing out lesson plans. What a great chance to read a bit more of Sapiens that I'd picked up in Tokyo I thought. Alas reading soon became napping. I woke to a dream of swimming way out at sea in Suruga Bay. I was swimming towards the Western Izu shore. Who was that guy on the raft that I swam by? I felt lazy as I lie there contemplating the dream...
Dang I've gotta do something! A line from a Mitsuo Aida poem came to mind.
"It's simply a matter of making yourself move"
I've gotta move!
Get up and get out the door. On the bike and peddling the next thing I know I'm huffing and puffing up the billy goat steep used to be a road on Mt. Daisen. I get to the place that once was a small parking lot, slosh through the mud careful not to peddle over any little frogs, peddle around the chain across the even worse path that once was covered in concrete and huff and puff some more till I can't peddle any further. Lean the bike against a tree then slow jog the last few hundred meters up the twisty turny mossy decomposing leaves and sticks covered path. Whoa a whole tree! That wasn't here last time. Finally at the flat area near the top where the dilapidated old shrine and bell still stand.
Kata! "A pure heart is a dojo". Mt. Daisen is my dojo. Not a soul around, still huffing and puffing from the ride and hike/run I go through the five Heian kata then do the Bassai kata a few times. Ringing the bell and taking a few moments to stop and breath is mandatory before heading back down.
Two or three years ago a mudslide relocated a tree to the middle of the last turn of the used to be a road. The stone retaining wall near there has more recently given way to the forces of nature. Some rocks have tumbled down onto the used to be a road and more will be coming soon. Two huge stones are giving way to gravity--to the pressure of steep earth and huge stone behind them. It was while passing by that that the thought hit...
Fumi ishi!
Yes, the perfect stepping stone. I'd only taken my iPhone and wallet but threw them in my backpack by habit. It's my smaller daypack but I bet it's big enough to carry that one stone in, and as luck would have it it was!
Home with the stone I felt way better for having made myself move.
I had far less time between classes today but after putting that stone down I got to thinking "I bet that other big piece broke off of this one". Back on the bike two km later of huffing and puffing then the final few hundred meter run climb again and there they are. Not just one piece but three! And two smaller ones I bet they all fit together. They're all still covered with spots of lichens what an awesome giant stone to sink into place where the lawn never grows next to the deck in our yard! I'd taken the old, much larger backpack so picked up the pieces, happy they all fit in then went to put it on my back and Ugh! Rocks are heavy you know it!
But doable methinks. Quick run over to ring the bell, breath in, breath out. Okay grab the pack let's try this.
The descent was slow and careful and still I about slipped and went down hard a couple times on the wet moss and decomposing leaves covered used to be a road path back to my bike but made it just the same. Back on the bike I put all my weight back as far as I could, locked up the back disc brake and kept the front brake clinched tight to slowly and safely as possible cruise down to the bottom. Back on the residential road then just a short mile home and done! I just had to weigh myself then weigh again holding the backpack full of stones before taking them out of the pack. 22.2 KG! Holy cow that's almost 50 lbs! No wonder it felt haevy!
Stones out of the pack puzzle time--fit the pieces together and hey! This is perfect!
And so goes the tale of my gift from Mt. Daisen, and no cheap gift either mind you. Call me a tightwad but I'd much rather have an adventure getting my stepping stones than pay 2,000 to 3,000 yen for big ones still not even half this size at the home centers here.
And so I'll file this one under "The joy of making myself move"
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