Koya-san visit

Today we took a trip into the mountains to visit Koya-san. As a centre for Buddhist study and training it's a big pilgrimage location. Given its mountain location it will provide a welcome break from the warmer climate of Kyoto.

Part of the experience of Koya-san is the journey to get there. The train and cable car (well more like a funicular railway) wind through some spectacular scenery on the way there.

When we arrived as well as being cooler it decided to rain constantly for our first day there.  Whilst we still fitted a lot in visiting the west area of the town where monks study and train at the temples, we returned early to our temple lodgings to dry off and get ready for dinner.

We were staying at Ekoin, a temple to the west of town. It's pretty well set up for visiting tourists. Being vegan the food was going to be interesting (see other post).

After dinner we set off to visit the mausoleum of Kobo Daishi the founder of Koya-san. It's a big pilgrimage spot and the 2km path to the lantern temple that sits in front of the mausoleum is lined with over 200,000 graves and memorial pagodas. Known as Okunoin it's a fantastic sight -  especially at dusk when lit by lanterns and shared with 1,000 year old cedar trees. The monk is said to be in eternal meditation concentrating on the liberation of all beings.

Returning to the temple we settled in for an early night as we had been invited to morning prayers at 06:30 which meant an early start.

The morning prayers were well attended by the temple guests and there were almost too many people there.  It was an interesting experience however.

The fire ceremony that followed was equally interesting but being in a smaller location was difficult to watch in detail. So we decided to go and take a wander back through Okunoin in the daylight before checking out and taking the journey to Osaka where we will be spending the day.