Mount Minobu 身延山

It was time to leave Tokyo. Mom and I had booked two nights at a ryokan, or traditional inn, up in the Japanese Alps, but it turned out that getting there would be half of the adventure.

We left Tokyo early in the morning, boarding the train for Kōfu, where we switched lines and continued on to the small town of Minobu in Yamanashi Prefecture.

We arrived in Minobu, a quaint and sleepy town of around 11,000, just a few hours later. It was grey and rainy, and we found ourselves standing alone in the town square with all of our luggage and a few hours to go until the shuttle bus was due to arrive and take us up into the mountains to the ryokan.

At first, we were going to just sit inside the station and wait, but it seemed a shame to waste a day simply spending it getting from point A to point B. I decided to go knock on the door of the local tourism office to ask if there was somewhere we could check our luggage for a few hours.

The lady working the counter was super helpful. She asked if we were going to Nishayama Onsen (I guess that's one of the main reasons that tourists pass through Minobu) and told us that we could leave our luggage with her in the tourist kiosk. She called us a taxi, and just a few minutes later we were making our way across the Fuji River and towards the base of Mount Minobu, 

The taxi driver dropped us off in front of the mountain temple, handed me his card, and told me that I could call him to have him pick us up when we wanted to head back to Minobu Station. I pocketed the card, and he drove off.

It was a grey, misty morning, and we were very nearly the only ones at the beautiful old temple. We walked around the quiet buildings, trying not to disturb the old man who was praying in front of a statue of the Buddha.

We still had time after visiting the temple grounds, so Mom and I decided to take the Minobusan Ropeway up to the top of the mountain.

The ropeway is a cable car system which on clear days is said to offer amazing views of nearby Mount Fuji.

Unfortunately, it was not a clear day, and as we climbed higher and higher up the mountain, we entered a cloud that cut visibility to nothing. By the time we had reached the upper station, we could barely see our own hands in front of our faces, much less Japan's most famous peak.

The mist added a really spooky atmosphere to the mountaintop temple.

Mount Minobu is one of Japan's sacred mountains. It is a historical spiritual site renowned for breathtaking natural beauty. Minobusan Kuonji Temple, which is built on the mountain, was established in 1274, and is the resting place of the famed Buddhist priest and philosopher Nichiren (1222-1282).

Nichiren was the founder of the Nichiren school of Buddhism, a uniquely Japanese branch of Pure Land Buddhism that teaches that the Lotus Sutra alone contains the highest truth of Buddhism and is the basis of achieving Buddhahood for everyone, regardless of class or education.

I would have enjoyed more time at the top of the mountain, but it was nearly time to meet the shuttle bus at Minobu Station, so after exploring for a bit we returned to the ropeway to head back down.

While waiting for the cable car at the top of the mountain, we tried one of Minobusan's specialties, kushi-kiri dango, a chewy rice dumpling snack called "bitter death dumplings". They were served skewered on a bamboo stick, roasted over hot charcoal, and brushed with a black walnut miso glaze.

Before serving, the tip of the skewer was carefully cut off with a pair of sharp scissors in a symbolic gesture. In Japanese, the word kushi (skewer) can be said to sound like the words ku (suffering) and shi (death), and so the act of cutting the skewer’s end represents the severing of misfortune and ill fate. This simple yet meaningful ritual transforms the snack into a charm of good luck and purification. They were also really tasty, with the mild sweetness of the rice and the rich umami of the miso melding together into a warming snack on a dark, rainy day.

We boarded the cable car and made our way back down to the temple at the base of the mountain. When we arrived, I took out the driver's card and tried to call him, but quickly discovered that I wasn't able to call out on the international plan that I had purchased for my phone before leaving Thailand.

Mom tried to call as well, and we both tried to dial out on Whatsapp, but to no avail.

Panicking slightly, we started to worry that we wouldn't be able to get back to town in time to make it to the scheduled pickup.

Our rescue came in an unexpected way. I found a working payphone at the temple and was finally able to call the taxi dispatch service. A few minutes later, the driver arrived to carry us back to the station.

I can't believe that in the year 2025 I actually had to use a payphone! Luckily, I had a 100-yen coin in my pocket, and even luckier, the payphone was working perfectly.

Anyway, we made it back to the station just a little late. We were the only guests heading to the onsen, and while I was sorry that the driver had to wait on us, I was relieved that there weren't any other passengers on the bus to be annoyed with us. All's well that ends well, and soon we were winding our way up into the Japanese Alps on our way to stay at the oldest hotel in the world.