 A young woman moves to Tokyo. Her quest to find spiritual values hidden in the modern city leads her to take photographs and ends in a pilgrimage to an ancient Buddhist cemetery in the mountains of Koyasan. Set amongst the neon lights and crowds of Tokyo and the graves and forestry of Koyasan,  The Mountain of Signs  explores the relevance of Buddhist values to modern-day spiritual practices. As its protagonist assimilates into the hyper-accelerated pace of life in Tokyo, she adopts the practice of photography as a coping mechanism. Following the zuihitsu literary tradition of Sei Shonagon s  Pillow Book  and the Buddhist priest Kenko s  Essays in Idleness , the film traces the subtle links between ostensibly random subjects through images, aphorisms, anecdotes, and observations. From the lurid maze of urban desires to the sanctuary of Buddhist tradition,  The Mountain of Signs  reveals not a path to enlightenment, but rather a transformation of ideals.