Koyasan
This weekend I went to Koyasan with my friend Liz and her cool neighbour Jeff. Mount Koya is a mountain in Wakayama prefecture to the south of Osaka. First settled in 819 by the monk Kukai, Mt. Koya is primarily known as the headquarters of the Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism. Located in an 800m-high valley amid the 8 peaks of the mountain, the original monastery has grown into the town of Koya, featuring a university dedicated to religious studies and over 100 temples, many of which offer lodging to pilgrims like us!
Upon arrival we attended an evening ceremony in our temple and I was seriously outlasted in the kneeling stakes by both Jeff and Liz. I soon decided to give up completely and sat on a bench at the back of the room for the last half hour. Following this we were guided to our dining room for the evening meal. We sat down to eat with other 'pilgrims', all of whom were from either Europe or North America. Surprise, surprise! Among the 10 or so of them were 2 JETs! Small world. The meal was actually interesting - but not so much in that it was a culinary delight...more in the sense that it inspired me to pioneer a new TV game show: Guess the Tofu!! This week's contestant is Barbara from Rotheram...
After setting up our room we left the temple to explore the town by night. We got as far as an icecream vending machine and a tiny local bar something like a Japanese version of Pheonix Nights. Here we listened to the locals blast out classic Japanese songs on the Karaoke. All my previous encounters with karaoke in Japan have been in the privacy of a booth. Not here. Above the bar was the screen with the lyrics, and the microphone was passed around in an alarmingly liberal fashion. Alarm being the appropriate word... one of the singers did actually sound like an air-raid siren!
After an amazing Japanese style bath I hit the futon and beanbag-pillow.
After a somewhat rocky night, punctuated by beanbag-pillow-induced face-cramps and renditions of the snor-o-tron 5000 emanating from the room nextdoor, I woke at 5.30am, though not to the gentle ringing of temple bells (as was planned), but rather to Jeff saying "shit, the temple bells are ringing!" After the morning ceremony we again sat down for dinner, although this time for some reason they called it "breakfast". There must have been a typo on the auto-cue. I mean, who in their right mind would refer to rice, noodles and tofu as breakfast?!
The rest of the day was spent trekking around Koyasan and viewing many of the stunning temples as well as the spooky cemetery, where Kukai himself, and many other people, have been buried.
On the way back to Tatsuno (or Aioi in the case of Liz and Jeff) we stopped off in Kobe for cheese burgers (or two in my case). I'm still full from the burgers now, six hours on from consuming them - now that is food!
I hope you enjoy the photos!
Our room
Jeff doing a duet with a young girl.
Inside the temple grounds.
Crop circles, but without the crops!
Entrance
Spooky!
Time to leave.
Me with Jeff and Liz.
Upon arrival we attended an evening ceremony in our temple and I was seriously outlasted in the kneeling stakes by both Jeff and Liz. I soon decided to give up completely and sat on a bench at the back of the room for the last half hour. Following this we were guided to our dining room for the evening meal. We sat down to eat with other 'pilgrims', all of whom were from either Europe or North America. Surprise, surprise! Among the 10 or so of them were 2 JETs! Small world. The meal was actually interesting - but not so much in that it was a culinary delight...more in the sense that it inspired me to pioneer a new TV game show: Guess the Tofu!! This week's contestant is Barbara from Rotheram...
After setting up our room we left the temple to explore the town by night. We got as far as an icecream vending machine and a tiny local bar something like a Japanese version of Pheonix Nights. Here we listened to the locals blast out classic Japanese songs on the Karaoke. All my previous encounters with karaoke in Japan have been in the privacy of a booth. Not here. Above the bar was the screen with the lyrics, and the microphone was passed around in an alarmingly liberal fashion. Alarm being the appropriate word... one of the singers did actually sound like an air-raid siren!
After an amazing Japanese style bath I hit the futon and beanbag-pillow.
After a somewhat rocky night, punctuated by beanbag-pillow-induced face-cramps and renditions of the snor-o-tron 5000 emanating from the room nextdoor, I woke at 5.30am, though not to the gentle ringing of temple bells (as was planned), but rather to Jeff saying "shit, the temple bells are ringing!" After the morning ceremony we again sat down for dinner, although this time for some reason they called it "breakfast". There must have been a typo on the auto-cue. I mean, who in their right mind would refer to rice, noodles and tofu as breakfast?!
The rest of the day was spent trekking around Koyasan and viewing many of the stunning temples as well as the spooky cemetery, where Kukai himself, and many other people, have been buried.
On the way back to Tatsuno (or Aioi in the case of Liz and Jeff) we stopped off in Kobe for cheese burgers (or two in my case). I'm still full from the burgers now, six hours on from consuming them - now that is food!
I hope you enjoy the photos!
Our room
Jeff doing a duet with a young girl.
Inside the temple grounds.
Crop circles, but without the crops!
Entrance
Spooky!
Time to leave.
Me with Jeff and Liz.
posted by Laurence at 11:25 PM
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