Mt Koya to Kyoto

Ok, here comes the second last installment of travel news, about 3 months late, but better late than never right?!

After we left Miyajima we embarked on one VERY long day of travel that reminded me of Around the Word in Eighty Days ;walking, ferry, rapid train, taxi, shinkansen, local train, cable car and bus. Needless to say I was quite grumpy by the time we arrived in Mt. Koya, but I guess that`s not much of a stretch because it doesn`t take much to make me grumpy!

We were in Hiroshima for a mere 2 hours but managed to take in the famous sites including the monument to Sadako and her 1000 paper cranes, the eternal flame and the A-Bomb dome. All were suitably bleak as it was pouring with rain.

After this we traveled to a remote area in Wakayama prefecture called Mt. Koya, or Koyasan. The train ride from Osaka to Koyasan was really interesting. Our very tiny train bobbed and weaved through the mountains and valleys covered in mist. The train screeched to a stop at the bottom of Mt. Koya and spit us out at the cable car station. The cable car was quite scary as it had to climb a hill that looked as if it was nearing a 90 degree inclination. Once at the top, after kissing solid ground, we had to take a bus to our lodgings. I think we were all rather relieved to have survived.

On Koyasan we stayed in a working Buddhist temple called Rengenjo-in. The appeal of the area comes from being able to spend time in these temples and participate in some rituals like morning and evening prayer/meditation. As we arrived the evening prayer was starting and I had my first experience with meditation. Sitting in the dim light of the temple with statues of Buddha and incense burning was very relaxing and interesting. However, I quickly found it`s not as east as it sounds to let your mind go and focus on your inner self. It seems the harder I tried to tune into my inner Zen self the more I focused on idiotic things. As it turned out I thought a lot about my butt and how sore it was from sitting on the ground, and about the noisy woman in front of me who seemed to be wearing a jacket made of cellophane. I guess I`m not supposed to be a Buddhist!

All joking aside, it was really neat to stay in a temple. Our room was gorgeous, with traditional paintings of Japanese warriors on the shoji screens. The food was also very good as it was vegetarian and didn`t include any of the fish products that seem all too common in traditional Japanese food.

The next day we spent some time walking around the area. The mountain apparently has over 100 temples along with Japans largest graveyard. Koyasan is special because it is the birthplace of Shingon Buddhism and the burial place of Kobo Daishi. Kobo Daishi is one of the most important religious figures in Japan. He is so famous that people make a pilgrimage, visiting 88 temples around the island of Shikoku, to follow in his path. Anyway, he is enshrined in a temple in the middle of this graveyard and is `resting in eternal meditation` (So, that`s what the kids are calling it these days!). The graveyard was amazing, really old gravestones resting amongst huge cedar trees. All of the other sites were not as nice in comparison, and it was still raining so we hightailed it out of there!

After Koyasan we headed to Kyoto. Let me state at the start that I have a love-hate relationship with Japan`s most famous and revered city. Every time we have visited it has been raining and full of tourists. This time was no exception and we braved the crowds of school children, yes, SCHOOL CHILDREN!!! Could it have gotten any worse? Anyway, we visited Nanzen-ji, Ginkaku-ji, Kinkaku-ji and walked the Philosopher`s Path on the first day. They were all somewhat interesting but, in my humble opinion REALLY overrated. Very rocky, very brown, very shiny and very thought provoking, respectively. On day 2 we visited Kiyomizudera, where the movie Memoirs of a Geisha was filmed. It was very pretty and grand but again filled with schoolchildren, so many children were packed onto the famous terrace that I thought it might collapse. In the end, it was raining so hard that Amy and I decided to call it a day and go back to Nagoya a bit early.