Today we had our very first contact with the religion of Shinto! After getting into Tachikawa late last night, we woke up ready for a full day of hiking. We started out by traveling to Mount Takao in Hachiōji, Tokyo, a mountain famous for its spectacular hiking trails and temples. Our group divided up into smaller groups based on how we wanted to ascend the mountain: the cable car, the short way, or the (very) long way. Fortunately for me, I chose the long way, which brought us to one of the most beautiful sights we've seen on this trip yet: Mount Fuji in all of its snow-capped glory. Sadly, pictures don't even begin to capture its majesty, but it just made me appreciate the moment even more.

After ascending 600 meters straight up the mountain, we were greeted by a large collection of Shinto and Buddhist shrines and temples. This absolutely captivated me. I had heard of Shinto before, but this was my first time encountering it in the real world. Shinto is a very unique religion that centers around belief of spirits, gods, and demons that live within every element of nature. One such heavenly being that we saw plenty of today is known as tengu. Tengu are large red humanoids with very long noses. Unique concepts such as this really made me appreciate the rich history of the Shinto tradition, which is rife with important rituals to observe. For instance, every time you enter an iconic Shinto gate, you must bow in a specific way before purifying your hands and mouth at the nearby water basin. Traditions like this only get more interesting once you factor the next idea into them: Buddhism.

As I've noted before, we saw many Shinto and Buddhist shrines and temples. However, many of these places contained elements of both of these religions . How can that be though? In my own life, I always thought you could only follow one religion (for instance, you could be a Christian or a Muslim, but not both). However, religion as we know it is a Western construct, so applying our biased conceptions of it simply does not work in the Far East. Interestingly, Buddhism and Shinto cross paths quite a lot, with both religions taking and borrowing from one another to form a unique brand of tradition found nowhere else in the world.

This experience has opened up my eyes to a whole new idea of what religion is and can be. It fascinates me that in Japan, people don't feel the need to identify as a follower of a certain religion, instead choosing to live according to tradition, even if that means following multiple religious beliefs. Perhaps I need to relearn the concept of religion completely! I will certainly have to ruminate on these ideas in the coming days; there is still so much to learn! In the meantime, we've just pulled into Yamagata for our next adventure! (If we can survive the snow that is, brrr!)