"Awaiting Gateway"

I'm a sucker for shrines in Japan.  I want to see (and photograph!) all the
sweeping roof tops of traditional buildings with their orange-red wooden
frames and stone guardians.  When I asked people "what can I see in
Ajimu?" they responded with blank stares and then urgings for me to travel to
other places to see anything special...Usa, Kyoto, Hokkaido.

When I look out over the narrow balcony on the back of my apartment, I see
extensive green rice fields and distant green mountains.  Morning mist often
hide the mountain tops and on windy, clear days you can see all the way to
Mt. Yufuin.  Surly there must be something to see out there.

One day after work I put on my tennis shoes and went for a run towards those
mountains.  I wasn't really concerned with the exercise as much as the chance
to explore in an efficient manner.  I had only run about one kilometer
along the rice fields when I came upon a stone torii at the foot of a large
hill.  A torii is a Shinto shrine gateway and marks an entrance into a
spiritual realm.  I was happily surprised to find one because whatever lied
beyond the gate was surly sacred.  About 50 stone stairs ascended upward from
the torii and disappeared into the trees.  I took a deep breath and began to
climb the stairs, noticing the worn stone as a sign of the shrine's old age.

At the top there was a small bridge and then even more stairs leading to a
second, smaller torii.  This gateway was guarded by to two stone lions.
Well, they could have been dragon-dogs, but I don't think dragon-dogs exist
in Shinto (or do they?).  The point is, there were two of them at the
entrance to the actual structures of the inner shrine.  I politely bowed to
the guardians and passed into an orange-red courtyard consisting of several
small buildings surrounded by stone columns.  There was no one else around
and the shrine say silently in the hot afternoon sun.  I was so amazed to
have found this place...here in little Ajimu.

I walked around for a while just staring at the sweeping roof tops and
orange-red wooden frames.  I wondered why in all the times I asked about what
to see in Ajimu no one had ever mentioned this place.  Did they remember the
shrine was here?  Was I the first to see it in the last 100 years?  Would the
shrine still be here when I left?

Eventually I had to leave because the heat was draining me and I needed to get
home for water and shelter.  On my way down the stone stairs I stopped for a
moment to look over the rice fields and the town beyond.  I could see most of
Ajimu from the height of the stairs and it wasn't until that moment that I
really acknowledged the beauty of my town.  Somehow noticing that natural
beauty made the distance to me American home not seem as vast.

Just before I took a step to pass out through the torii, a shiny gleam caught
my eye from the ground.  A single copper 10 Yen coin was reflecting the sun
and sat just inside the shrine grounds.  I picked up the coin and took it as
a gift from the divine...a reminder of how sacred places are out there
waiting to be found.  Japan was slowly revealing herself to me...and in
response I was slowly feeling more at home.