I'd heard that the Kurama Temple (鞍馬寺), nestled on the side of a mountain in a northern suburb of Kyoto, made for a nice visit, but despite riding past it dozens of times since I got into cycling, I'd never actually entered it. This week I finally did.

The main part of this post is about this week's visit, but first let me recount my prior experiences with this temple...

Normally I just ride past and perhaps snap a photo along the way, such as the following shot from my first “real” bike ride 2½ years ago:

Sometimes I stop at the entrance to take photos, such as the following shot from the two-year anniversary ride of my first “real” ride earlier this year:

Apparently I had stopped by the entrance to this temple during a photo outing in 2012, with Paul and Damien, when I took this photo of the edge of the entrance stairs:

I post this shot because I really like its richness, its “vibe”, and to contrast it with all the crappy iPhone photos we'll see below, from this week's visit.

On that same drive in 2012, I took these shots of a monkey harassing someone (for, I suppose, food of some kind):

That day-long outing five years ago, with Paul and Damien, was really great, and many blog posts resulted, including:

• “Kyoto’s Road to Somewhere”
• “A Few Pretty Pictures from Kyoto’s Middle-of-Nowhere Sourenji Temple”
• “A Quick f/1.2 + f/5.6 Pair from the Sourenji Temple”
• “A Wigglegram from the Well-Named “Fallen Leaf Shrine””
• “A Long But Photogenic November in Kyoto”
• “Kyoto’s Souren-ji Temple at f/1.2”

On that wonderful 2012 outing, I also took this slightly-overexposed shot of Damien:

And that photo brings me to the reason that I finally visited Kurama Temple this week.

Damien was about to start his fourth and last “Hell Week” course of chemotherapy, a week-long torture of nausea-inducing drugs that saps the will to live, so he wanted to get out into nature one last time before. He intended to hike from Kibune to Kurama, and then relax at the Kurama Onsen. I wasn't able to make it in time to join the start of the hike, so I went directly to Kurama, hiking up to meet him at the temple at the top of the mountain.

All the rest of the photos on today's blog post are from this recent trip, taken with an iPhone.

The path to the top has many different sections, both with steps and just a plain gravel path. The only thing that was consistent was the climb... whether steps or path, it kept going up and up.

Finally, after 20 minutes of brisk climbing, I arrived at the lowest part of the temple proper.

... where I found Damien waiting for me. I was tuckered out from the hike, but took a quick selfie...

Apparently there's a huge multi-level complex to be explored, but we had neither the time nor the energy (nor the appropriate camera) to enjoy it, so we headed back down the way I had come.

Even though we were taking the exact path I'd just come up on, the view was so much more interesting heading down. Time and again you could see much more splayed out before you. It was wonderful.

All in all it whet my appetite to return with a real camera. Paul will likely be visiting next month, and by then Damien should be recovered from his chemo, so I hope the three of us can spend a day here with the camera. It will be glorious.

After we exited the shrine, we went to the Kurama Onsen, and I tried the outside bath for the first time. Until now, the Kurama Onsen for me was merely the start to one of Kyoto's hallmark tough cycling climbs, the 5km @ 9% climb to Hanase Pass.

In the evening, for his last meal before returning to the hospital for Hell Week, we indulged in American-style Pizza from Dai's Pizza Kitchen...

As I write this, it's the Friday at the end of his last Hell Week, so he's got light at the end of the tunnel. The week after Hell Week is usually filled with all kinds of side-effect problems, so that's still in the way, but he should hopefully be back to normal by the end of the month, just in time for some awesome fall-foliage photo outings.