Japan - Day 10

Day 10 greeted us in Nara with glorious sunshine spilling into our room through the cracks of our bedroom walls. Our room had the world's tiniest balcony which looked over some of the neighbouring houses gardens. I spent some time on here before heading downstairs for some breakfast. I got one final pose with the guesthouse owner’s hat before heading off through Nara to the train station for an epic journey into the Japanese mountains known as Koyasan. I’d spent alot of time researching this place prior to our trip and was apparently a must do. We were to travel to Koyasan and stay in a genuine Bhuddist temple overnight!

The journey to Koyasan was a long one, and we had to arrive before 4pm at our temple in which we would be staying if we wanted to get any dinner. Fortunately, the train ride was a spectacular journey up the mountains of Japan, through tunnels cut into the hills and dense forest land. Oddly there were a number of stations in the midst of all this that were literally just a platform and nothing else.. no paths to go anywhere..no houses or shops nearby. I guessed they were to be used by the maintenance workers on the line. During the journey we met a German girl (I can’t remember her name.. lets call her Stefanie) who was spending 6 months travelling all of Japan. Impressive! We slowly rose up and up on the train until we came to a large red cable car which we had to board for the final ascent into Koyasan.We climbed into the cable car and waited for the guard in full uniform and white gloves to operate the car. Posh. As we started to climb at terrifying near 90 degree angle, relaxing Japanese music started playing throughout the entire journey.. apparently this was to calm people down who might worry about the height in which we were climbing. Fortunately the jounrey wasn’t long and the view at the top was phenomenal! I took some photos then walked out of the station to catch our bus to the temple we'd be staying at, the Eko Inn. It was here we also bid farewell to Stefanie.

Koyasan was a small mountain town and today it bathed in glorious sunshine. Many temples stood next to each other, each with perfectly made gardens/courtyards, welcoming tourists travelling and staying in them. The main road was lined with small shops and, of course, vending machines selling Boss Coffee (Win!), whiskey (bigger win!) and beer in cans (bigger win still!!!!). A small stream also ran alongside the road and meandered through the various temples. The Eko Inn stood pretty much smack bang in the middle of the small town. The courtyard had a small pond in the middle and was decorated with various flowers. There were a collection of buildings to make up the temple and there was a small stone pathway leading up to the main temple where the prayers/ceremonies took place. Dan and I proceeded to reception where we were greeted by 3 monks who ran the temple. While we waited to be shown to our rooms I decided to take a look around the temple. I walked through wooden floored hallways into rooms filled with tapestries and praying mats. I saw small courtyards between rooms with small gardens and ponds. It seemed a really peaceful place. We were then taken to our room and asked to wear slippers/massive wooden clogs inside the buildings and to leave our shoes at the door. Our room was like a smaller version of our ryokan in Hakone. We had one single living space with a balcony where two chairs and a table sat. In the middle of this room was a small table with 4 mats at each side for meals. Our sleeping space was to be in the same room where futons were prepared after dinner. I spent some time in the room looking through the guestbook for things to do and see in Koyasan.

The guestbook told us that the main sight to see here was the Okunoin, a sacred Buddhist graveyard in a woodland area, home to over 3000 shrines and gravestones combined. Bish and I left our temple, flung off our slippers and set out into the town for the Okunoin. Along our journey through the town we passed a small cafe called Lotus De Cafe. The aroma of fresh coffee and cakes persuaded us to make a small pit stop inside, and it turned out to be one the best decisions we made.

As we walked inside the cafe we were greeted by the owner, a plump Japanese women in a warm red cardigan and bobbed short black hair. "HELLO HELLO WELCOME WELCOME! HOHOHO" was her first words and quickly sat us down inside the cafe. "English You!?" we nodded and i told her I understood a little Japanese.. she was very impressed by this.. and told us she'd made fresh cakes this morning for us to try... homemade chocolate cake and baked vanilla cheesecake. They were incredible. I ordered a matcha green tea (on her recommendation) and Bish ordered a coffee. After our cake and drinks were made she joined us for a great conversation about England and Japan. She turned out to be a politician in Koyasan, who visits the UK and Paris (something like over 12 times!) regularly. She taught us some Japanese phrases such as Oiishi sou! (that looks delicious) and complimented me on my pronunciation. Her santa esk ho ho ho of a laugh was infectious. At one stage she told Dan he could be a sumo wrestler which i found hilarious! Needless to say we had a blast here. She treated us to free coffee and called us her Japanese Mama. After a good hour here we decided to leave for the Okunoin. We bid Japanese Mama a farewell and took a souvenir photo and poster home with us so the memory of this good time would not be forgotten.To this day the picture of all three of us hangs proudly on a canvas in my flat back home :)

We journeyed onward to Okunoin and it was not long before we arrived at the entrance. A small wooden bridge passed over the stream and into the sacred site which was shadowed by towering trees. Inside a stone pathway led a winding path through gravestones, statues, shrines, candles and flowers that stood either side of the path. Truly majestic. We walked slowly and silently through the site, taking in the peaceful atmosphere. Dan and I spent about an hour walking here and decided to head back to the temple in time for dinner. We made the mandatory pitstop at the vending machines to top up on whiskey/beer to accompany our meal.

Our food was waiting for us when we got back to the temple. The cuisine served here is known as shojin ryori which is basically vegetarian Buddhist monks food. It was laid out in similar decoration to our previous Ryokan. We ate noodle soups, fried tofu, random sweet things i don't know what were called, more noodles and plenty of rice!

After dinner, Bish and I decided to take an evening walk around the town. We walked back to a shrine area with a giant red pagoda and other temple like builidings. The whole place was lit up with floodlights, making the place look pretty awesome! We were the only ones in the area and took some wicked photos before heading back to our temple for an epic game of chess accompanied with our vending machine booze. We hit the sack pretty early as we had to be up at 6am the next day to witness the traditional morning prayers of the temple.