The sun had long set, and the three of us were the only ones on the road in the middle of nowhere. The eerie silence, broken only by the sound of the occasional car whizzing past in the darkness, was unnerving. The narrow path ahead and behind us was empty, and with each minute that went by, the night grew darker still.

Hearts pounding, we walked as briskly as we could in a single file, racing against the night to get back to civilization. To our left, a dense cluster of trees. I pictured a wild animal stalking us, keeping pace with little effort under the cover of darkness, eyes flashing with danger. On our right, the Nishi-Oumi highway, cars going by too quickly to notice us.

Our day had started off just fine. We’d just finished visiting the crowded tourist attractions of Nishiki Market and Kiyomizu-dera back in Kyoto, and with half a day to spare, we decided to get off the beaten path to get away from all the people. Our plan was simple: head to Lake Biwa, an hour away in the city of Takashima, to watch the sun go down over the floating torii gate, and then head back to Kyoto for a late dinner.

And so armed with a small assortment of fruits and light snacks, we arrived at the Omi-Takashima station. The torii that we wanted to get to, part of the Shirahige shrine founded in 1900, was a distance away. Since there’s no way to reach it via public transportation, we jumped into a cab that happened to be waiting at the station and got there in twenty minutes.

Our timing seemed perfect – the sky was just about to change its colors, so we sat at the steps leading down to the lake and happily settled down with our fruits, warabimochi, and a tiny bottle of sake.

With just a few islands in the distance marking the line where the sky meets the lake, the orange floating gate against the fading blue sky made for quite a beautiful, surreal sight. At seven, the lights on the torii switched on, illuminating and completely changing the view. Now the gate, more vibrant than ever against the darkened evening sky, seemed like a portal to another world, ready to transport us to another time and space.

As people started leaving, we realised that we also had to make our way back before it got even darker. But after much walking about and waving, we still couldn’t find a cab. Most of the other visitors on the steps had driven their own cars or cycled to the Shirahige shrine. With (almost) no data and rapidly depleting funds, it dawned on us that our best option would be to retrace our steps and to walk all the way back to the train station.

So that’s how we ended up on that path. Nothing motivates you to move fast more than getting stranded in a relatively rural, quiet area of town without any other humans in sight. We brisk-walked down that narrow stretch that seemed to go on forever. I briefly considered flagging down a passing car to hitchhike our way back to the station. We walked faster.

About twenty minutes in, the path finally diverged a little from the highway and widened up enough for us to walk more freely. Like a scene straight from a horror movie, the first signpost we came across informed us that we were now going past a tomb, a shrine, and a temple. Fine in the day, not fine at night.

Picking up our speed, we soon found ourselves in a low-rise residential area that looked almost completely vacant. Most of the houses weren’t lit, and without the cars driving beside us, it was so quiet that we could clearly hear every step we took as our feet hit the ground. The minutes seemed to drag out into hours.

Finally, we turned the corner and arrived back at the train station, which was already deserted. It wasn’t even 9pm yet, but it felt like 2am. We sat at the platform and waited, hoping that there were still trains to Kyoto, and praying that the next train would come soon so that we could hurry up and get back to our hostel. Thankfully, it came, and we were quickly whisked back to the city.

It was almost as if the past few hours hadn’t happened at all.

If you’re interested in reading more about what we did in Japan, check out 7 Must-Do Things When In Osaka and 3 Days in Kyoto: What to Eat, See, and Do. For more misadventures, check out To Porto And Back In A Day: Solo Tripping to Lisbon, Portugal (Part 3).