21. Chapter: Surprise Meeting, a Falcon, and a Wild Mountain Tour

Yesterday was such an eventful day that by evening, I could only fall onto the futon utterly exhausted.

A few days ago, my friend Christine from England, whom I met years ago in Helsinki and occasionally run into somewhere in the world, and I accidentally discovered that we were both in Japan at the same time and arranged to meet in Kyoto along the Philosopher's Path.

After a cheerful reunion over matcha ice cream, we set off and first encountered a Japanese lady who was walking with a large brown falcon on her arm. She later explained that the bird was still very young and in training, named Haku, and she took him for a walk every day.

Next, we were invited to an indigo exhibition on the other side of the canal featuring the most beautiful garments, paintings printed on fabric, yarns, wool, lamps, and scarves. Even wood and stones had been dyed with indigo by the craft group!

The cats were also there and were thoroughly fed, petted, and photographed from all angles.

At a bridge, a friendly old gentleman approached us and showed us his little boats made from leaves and flowers. He insisted we take one and throw it in the water. We politely declined at first because, firstly, they were so beautiful to look at and, secondly, we suspected it was a tourist scam, but NO! He assured us many times that everything was free and finally took us by the hand, led us to the middle of the small bridge, pressed a little work of art into our hands, and ordered us to throw it! Then, as it landed upright and cheerfully floated away on the water, he cheered: “Oooooh! You will have a happy life! Happy life!!!”, giggled happily, and then turned to the next passersby! Pure, genuine, unadulterated kindness and joy for life! Wonderful!

This morning I decided to climb Johnny's local mountain, Daimonji, one of the mountains surrounding Kyoto on three sides. Woodland extends up to the 466m high peak, and right behind our guesthouse, at about mid-height, you can see a bare spot with a large dai symbol (大, meaning big). Every year on August 16, powerful fires are lit on five mountains in succession, each representing different symbols, but this one on Daimonji is probably the most famous. We climbed up six years ago and enjoyed the view of the city from the fire sites. I remembered the ascent as demanding yet manageable…..

After saying goodbye to my friend, I set off on a different route upwards, as it seemed shorter and was supposed to pass a waterfall I wanted to see. However, it turned out to be a disappointing trickle, even though it sounded much more impressive in the dark, quiet forest.

But the ascent!!! I was once again alone and was ready to turn back three times within an hour. The path was very narrow and hard to see, with barely any markings—only occasionally a yellow plastic bag tied to a branch, fallen trees from recent typhoons blocking the way, some muddy wet sections, always steep uphill with a deep abyss on one side. Somewhere, a sign warned to watch out for wild monkeys. Makeshift little bridges without railings over particularly wet spots.

I’m not particularly stable on my feet, and when I get scared, my knees turn to jelly and don’t provide a good stable stance. At that point, I was already telling myself that I absolutely could not walk back the same path; going upwards was still somehow manageable, but coming down with weak knees facing the looming abyss was not a good idea. I really wished for a strong arm to hold onto, preferably Johnny or Juli, but there were not even any trees or branches for support nearby, so I crawled on all fours over particularly dangerous-looking sections and took very small steps, as I had learned, to maintain balance as much as possible. To top it off, at some points on the mountain, there was no network, so I couldn't even call for help…..

Fortunately, I encountered three other people along the route, two of whom sped ahead of me and gave me an idea of where the path actually went, and one who was coming towards me and assured me that the descent on the other path was much easier because there were stairs everywhere. This gave me a bit of courage to keep climbing, always worrying that a monkey would suddenly appear behind me. I had attached my