Fire walking with me

An explanation about what the Takao fire walking festival was like can only sound like a rattled out dream - there were all these people in white chanting, and a big pile of pine branches, and then a priest waved an axe and a sword at the pile and then another priest - oh, and they all had wireless mics - another priest circled the pile and shot arrows into it. One spread clear liquid from a wooden bucket onto the pile with a golden ladle, either water or kerosene. They kept chanting and praying and shaking rattly bells and blowing conch shells - yeah, it was in the middle of the mountains but they all had giant conch shells in net coverings - and then one lit a torch from an altar and lit the whole pile on fire.

As the pile burned down, it was reverse engineered to a blackened scaffold and kindling that had been under the fresh green, sending out a dry campfire smell with the damp pine. Luckily (for me) the thick smoke was blowing out over another side of the pen, although fine ash drifted down over everyone. They used long rakes to mash it down into coals, then dumped four sacks of salt to make two entrances and exits. The Japanese people nearby seemed to have as little clue as I did as to what was going on and what it all meant. A kid kept looking up from his video game to quiz his parents and they kept shrugging and guessing. "I think it's rice, an offering. No, it's salt. It's to sprinkle on the fire. No, it's to stand on. I don't know. My feet are cold. Yeah, I think they should hurry up and start with the fire walking already, too."




After an hour and a half of chanting and burning, the firewalking started.


After all the officials had gone through, they opened it up to everyone. I walked up the hillside to the end of the line that was so far away that the drum sounded quieter. After waiting almost another hour, I would have happily put my icy feet in a roaring fire. As it was, either the walk was too quick, the coals had been trampled by too many people already, or I have discovered a new superhuman power, and I am disappointed to report that walking across the bed of coals did not feel hot at all. The cold, stony mud on the other side was painful and unpleasant, but not at all the way I'd been braced for.




Mt. Takao is also a great place to hike, with nice views of Mt. Fuji. You can skip the hike and take a cable car or chair lift to historic Yakuoin temple at the top.
Here's a timetable for getting to Takao from Shinjuku. The special morning hiker trains get you there super fast. The orange ones with "" above them take about 45 minutes, with one easy transfer right across the platform.