Today we embark on a “planes, trains and automobiles” type of journey to get to the holy mountaintop Koya-san or Mount Koya. This is the centre of Shingon Buddhism and a place of pilgrimage for the Japanese. We set off early and don’t have any hiccups with the taxi, Shinkansen, regular train, subway, bus and cable car… the Japanese really are that efficient. The view of the mountains from the train is impressive as we continue to climb. When we disembark our last train at Gokurakubashi, we take a cable car, which we’re assured is one of the steepest in the world, shooting up nearly 900 meters.
It’s raining when we arrive but after a vegan lunch (looks like we’re going to be eating Buddhist style for the next while) the showers clear, and we set out to investigate the local attractions. So a bit of background on this place…
In 804 a monk called Kobo Daishi travelled to China in search of Buddhist teachings. He brought Shingon Buddhism back to Japan and was given imperial permission to build his monastic settlement on Mount Koya. We start with a visit to Danjo Garan which is a complex of temples and buildings including the great pagoda and main hall.
We continue to Kongobuji temple where Kobo Daishi taught until 835 when he entered into eternal meditation (i.e. he died). The temple is surrounded by a huge rock garden and we visit the many rooms where he taught, hundreds of years ago. Walking on through the town there are temples literally on every corner:
On the mountain, most accommodation is with monks in their temples. Our temple accommodation is called Henjoson-in and the entrance leads to a very peaceful rock garden and then the main building.
Later in the afternoon we visit Okunion cemetery, the largest cemetery in Japan with over 200,000 tombs. It is also the site of Kobo Daishi’s mausoleum and there’s a two kilometer walk to get there.
On the way to the large temple building holding the mausoleum we see many interesting tombstones:
She looks delighted with life…
Back at our temple lodging it’s time for dinner. The food is beautifully presented but it’s vegan (seriously!) and essentially tofu prepared six different ways with very limited flavors. I’m all on for trying new things but it’s bland and tasteless – I eat most of it mind you!!
We are able to order beer which we are delighted with. We did smuggle in some wine just in case but we might need that later on the hike! While we’re eating dinner someone is moving the table from the middle of our room and laying out the futons. This is what we’ll be sleeping on for our time in the mountains:
Cute signs in various places around the “hotel” to tell us where to go:
After dinner we go for a bath which is the only option for a wash as there’s no shower in our room (just a toilet with a small tap over the cistern!). It does have all the cool buttons though!
The bath is going to be a fun experience .. check out the rules:
In fairness it’s not as bad as you’d think (Margaret Kennedy if you’re reading this I’ve no doubt you’ll be remembering our mud bath adventure in Calistoga!). We have a crazy hot bath and get into our robes for the evening.
We get up before 6am so we can pray with the monks. It turns out to be more of a prayer viewing rather than participating and there’s only one monk involved. He lights candles, then settles into a pose before chanting and striking a drum at regular intervals. It’s very rhythmic and relaxing and other people walk to the alter one at a time, bow, kneel for a prayer and return to their seats. I’m extremely impressed how the Japanese people bend down and get up on their feet so gracefully and just as I’m admiring one lady she walks down from the alter and smacks her head off a low hanging lantern. It was really funny and let’s just say one of us giggled a lot harder than the others, but I’m not naming names!! Later when we discussed the chanting I mentioned to the girls that I could hear different songs as part of the chanting… at one point it did sound like he was about to go into “chka-chka slim shady” 😲 .
After an elaborate Japanese breakfast which involves rice and tofu again we set off on another train journey to Kii Tanabe, of course that’s after stopping at the local shop “Family Mart” for a pork bun!
When we arrive in Kii Tanabe a very smiley lady takes us through a lot of paperwork for our next four days walking the Kumano Kodo.
We head for our hotel, freshen up and then set off to see what this little town has to offer in the way of nightlife!! It looks like we’ve found the spot for bars. It’s called Ajikoji and has lots of small streets filled with over 200 restaurants and Japanese pubs called izakaya. Unfortunately for us, it’s Sunday at 6pm and not a lot is open. We find a few options and ultimately settle on a traditional style restaurant with private dining areas and low seats. The poster outside with a picture of wine seals the deal! We order from a tablet which has pictures of the food and a little English and end up with a delicious variety of food including pancake, avocado salad, naan pizza and spicy shrimp. The wine goes down very well but we’ll have to behave as we start hiking tomorrow!
As we leave the restaurant Megan notices what sounds like singing coming from what looks like a small house. I open the door and peep inside and confirm it’s a tiny bar with karaoke. The bar lady waves us in and the customers move seats to make room for us at the bar (which is the only option for seating). There’s a couple to our left and two guys and a girl to our right and one of the guys has a microphone in hand and is singing. Needless to say we get stuck in.
There’s a mobile tablet–like thingy on the bar and you type in the song or artist you want and hit send and that’s it…. pick up the microphone and go for it.
This is by far the most authentic and fun karaoke I’ve ever been at. It is hilarious. All three if us sing and also do duets with the locals. The couple on our left sing some very heartfelt Japanese songs and the other three do a range of English songs that we all join in.
Even the owner, while still pouring beer into our tiny glasses, sings. It’s absolutely brilliant and we’d stay all night only we have to be up at 6am to start our hiking.
I’ll leave you with a little taste of our shenanigans.. let’s hope there’s no hangovers tomorrow!!!
odohertyelaine 