Be Grateful for the Ordinary Things, and Savor How Precious They Are
A short walk from the ticket gates of Kintetsu Ikoma Station lies Toriimae Station, the foot of the Ikoma Cable Line. In 1918, Japan's first cable car began running from here, built to carry pilgrims to Hozan-ji Temple, halfway up Mount Ikoma. More than a hundred years later, cable cars still travel up and down the slope of just under a kilometer between Toriimae and Hozanji stations.
On the Hozanji line run cars of a rather unusual shape, such as Bull, modeled on a bulldog, and Mike, named after the Japanese word for a calico cat and modeled on one. They are popular with tourists and families with small children, yet this line is not merely a ride for sightseers. Homes are packed tightly together on both sides of the slope, and in the morning and evening, people on their way to work and school climb aboard as well. Unusually for a cable car, it is also an everyday means of getting around for the people of this town.
When the doors shut, the car slowly begins to climb. Just outside the windows, the roofs of homes slide past. Along the way there are several level crossings, where people and cars wait for the cable car to pass; crossings on a cable car line are said to be rare in Japan. Looking back, I can see the streets of Ikoma spreading out at the foot of the slope, and beyond them, the gentle ridgeline of the hills, softened by a faint haze.
This road you always walk along. This train you always ride. This view you always see. These people you always meet.
In life, the very things that seem a matter of course can suddenly stop being so.
Be grateful for those ordinary things you are always able to do, and savor how precious they are.
Getting off at Hozanji Station, the end of the line, and walking along the approach for a while, I reach the grounds of Hozan-ji Temple, fondly known as Ikoma Shoten. This cable car was originally laid for the people who came to pray at this temple. Now, more than a hundred years later, it travels up and down that same slope carrying people on their way to work, people on their way to school, and people on their way home. Even as the sun goes down, a car with its windows lit will surely be climbing slowly up the slope, carrying someone.