日立駅から御岩神社へ ―御岩山、神々の坐す山②

Good evening.
Thank you very much for visiting this blog.
Continued from the last blog, I’d like to introduce Oiwa Shrine and Mt. Oiwa in Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture.

As well as the last article, there’s no report of Nihonshu or restaurants in today’s blog^^;

Contents

To Hitachi by Joban Line

The access to Oiwa Shrine is by car or train, of course. I chose train this time because my car was at my parents’ home and it would take a day to get it.

To go by train, I had to get on Joban Line from Ueno Station to Hitachi Station, and then take a bus to “Oiwa Shrine Mae”stop.
The bus connecting Hitachi Station and the shrine is as few as 1 in 2 hours on Saturday, Sunday, and national holidays.

I was planning to walk up mountains around Mt. Oiwa for exercise after the purification, so I checked the bus schedule from the shrine’s website and decided to catch a bus leaving Hitachi Station at 9:55 to start the day early (I thought that it was the earliest bus. This choice made something later.)
Therefore, I woke up at 6 in the morning and took a train leaving Minami Senju Station on Joban Line, which is the nearest station from my home at 6:40 for Hitachi.

The train I took became a rapid train between Kita Senju and Abiko, but it still took 2 hours and 30 minutes to get to Hitachi.
I was sleepy because I had a drinking party on the night before, so I was going to have a sleep on the train. But I didn’t feel sleepy on the train.

I left my iPad at home, and my smartphone was not so useful either because the battery died quickly.
So, I turned off my smartphone, and spent 2 hours seeing outside from the window, or just closing my eyes doing nothing.

The sky was clear when I left my home in Tokyo, but when I changed the train at Katsuta Station, dark rain clouds started to increase.
When I was thinking, “Oh no, don’t….”, it started to rain heavily.

Mt. Oiwa stands in the property of Oiwa Shrine, but the mountain is as wild as mountain priests used to have practice asceticism there.
It’s dangerous for amateurs who don’t have proper equipment to climb the mountain when raining.

I did check the forecast before I left, but it was Tokyo’s weather.
I thought that the weather wouldn’t differ much because my destination was in the same Kanto area (Tokyo and surrounding area), but I was wrong.

After that, I arrived at Hitachi Station.
It was heavy rain in Hitachi as well, so I thought that I would be able to visit the shrine and receive the purification only.

I still needed an umbrella anyway, so I went to a convenience store to get one.
“It will be a waste of money if the rain stops….” I once thought such a thing after I bought one.
Then, the rain stopped.
The god or the buddha probably heard my mind^^;

Well, I reconsidered and made myself to think that I “KAETA (changed / bought in Japanese)” the weather only with 700 yen.
My stomach started to ache just before getting on the bus, and I nearly missed the bus because of the attack.
I somehow made it, and I took a bus to the shrine which was waiting at the bus stop 1.

From Hitachi Station to Oiwa Shrine

When I got on the bus, there were no other people.

I expected that there would be more people because Oiwa Shrine was famous as “Power Spot” (places which have mystical power).
I understood that it was because the time was so early for Tokyo people.

After about 10 minutes,

“The next stop is, the terminal stop, Takasuzudai Danchi.”

The announcement said so.
With this announcement, I finally noticed that I was on a wrong bus.

The shrine’s website kindly explained the details of which bus to take; “Chuoguchi No.1 Stop, Hitachi Dentetsu Bus 60, to Higashikawachi direction”.
I only read “Chuoguchi No.1 Stop”.

I regretted my carelessness, and I asked the driver if I could walk to the shrine from there.
He said that it would be dangerous because the way was too long to walk, and he did something for me.
Thanks to him, I decided to go back to the station.

I went back to the station, and the next available bus to the shrine was leaving at 11:47 (the previous one was 8:40).
I had an hour, so I decided to see around the station, and check the website to book my purification just in case.
Then, I found,

“Reservation required for purification”

Oooohhh, it was lucky that I checked the website in advance…!
I was nearly having “unluck” without it. At the same time, I understood that “unluck” was just “lack of attention”.
Well, I called the shrine to ask the details right away.

A lady who answered my phone sounded very gentle.
I told her that I would arrive at the shrine around noon, and asked her which time of the purification would be suitable for me.
She implied that all the schedule in the afternoon was full, except for the one from 12:00 noon.
It was impossible to make it with the bus I was going to take, so I hung up the phone once and reconsidered my plan.

(The following is the conversation in my mind)
“If the bus is late, you can also take taxi instead.”
“Wait, the bus driver just said taxi is not a good choice because it’s so expensive….”
“Should I give up today and come back next month…?”
“But if I miss it today, I might have more unlucky things for 1 more month…!”
“If I had more bad lucks, I’ll have a mental breakdown like Kamille from Gundam!”
“Then, let’s take taxi if the freight is cheaper than train’s round-trip fare.”

I asked the fare to a taxi driver, and I found that the fare to Oiwa Shrine was 3,700 yen to 3,790 yen.
The one way freight between Minami Senju and Hitachi was is 2590 yen, which means,

Taxi: 3,790 yen < Train (round-trip): 5,180 yen

Taxi was cheaper!
So I decided to go taxi!

Reservation of purification

I called the shrine again to make a reservation.
I told the lady my name and address, and she asked me what kind of purification I wanted to take.
The website showed the choices such as “fulfilling your desire” or “safety of your family”, and my choice was,

– Yakuyoke Kaiun (Removing evils and bringing in good luck)
– Josai Shofuku (Avoiding disasters and inviting happiness)

Should be one from these 2.

I liked “Kaiun”, but I’d done “Yakuyoke” in March.
To think about my life so far and my bad lucks in the last few days, “Josai” seemed good.

I told the lady over the phone that I would take “Josai Shofuku”.
Then, she told me that “Josai” was for people who are suffering from disasters such as traffic accidents.

I hadn’t had traffic accidents.
I usually follow a recommend but, I myself didn’t know, I talked to the lady how I’d been having bad lucks in this year; food poisoning on my birthday, how I’ve been having bad lucks since I was born, and how I was having difficulty finding a good partner for many years.
I usually don’t talk such things to other people, but I somehow couldn’t help talking on that day.
The lady understood my situation, and she accepted “Josai Shofuku” which was my original request.

At last, she asked me which price of the ceremony fee I liked.
There were 2 prices, and I answered that I would take expensive one because I thought that the effect should be bigger if I paid more money.
This might be a dirty part of my mind.

After that, she asked me if I was coming by car.
I wondered why she asked such a thing, but I answered “by train”.

Then she said,

“You will receive Ofuda (amulet) after the purification, and the expensive purification will be a very bigger Ofuda. It might be difficult to take it back by train.”

I’ve been in the financial industry, and I’m used to the idea to earn as much handling charge as possible.
Therefore, I was very surprised at her advice to recommend cheaper one.

The thing I was taught when I was in the sales department was like this.
“If you want to get a contract of 10 million yen, say to your customer, ‘You should put in 100 million yen’. If you say, ‘Put in 10 million’, you will only get 1 million.”

I understood that people who work for Shintoism think about other people’s happiness more than earning money, and I was impressed at it.
The money is not only the way to express the mind.

I thought so from this conversation, and my heart was washed with it.
I even wanted to pay more money to thank the lady to teach me that.
Well, I was trying to express my appreciation with money after all…… I think that was because my heart was broken up.

I didn’t decide the price rank of the purification on the phone, and decided to choose it at the shrine after checking the Ofuda’s size.
I headed the shrine by a taxi.

I stop here now, and I will write about the episode at Oiwa Shrine in the next blog.