Field Trip to Koyasan (高野山)

Koya-san is a mountain in the Wakayama prefecture 3 hours away from Konan University, where Shingon Buddhism was founded by a monk called Kobo Daishi Kukai.  1200 years ago he brought it from china, apparently led by a black and a white dog to the area which looked like the centre of an eight petal lotus flower.

Faith in Kobo Daishi and in the thinking that he never died,  just entered a state of eternal meditation at Okunoin (cemetery) has brought pilgrims to the area for centuries.

Open arrival to the temple we were staying at we were introduced to our shared rooms and then had lunch, and for breakfast and dinner we had a feast, complete with as many bowls of rice as we want~

Bento (lunchbox) my host mum packed for me!



Famous koyasan tofu, vegetable tempura, miso soup, pickled seaweed and more: all delicious



Breakfast

 In the temple no shoes could be worn, they had slippers provided, and in the tatami rooms no slippers could be worn, so you had to keep taking them off to enter each individual room. For those thinking of coming to Japan - wear shoes that you can easily slip on and off! Everywhere you go, it is custom to take them off. Even trainers for the gym are unacceptable.

watching a japanese drama in their free time



Koya-kun (above) is Koyasan's mascot ~


In our free time we explored the town. The Daito was very beautiful, the orginal structure was built in 816 and perished in a fire. They should really cut down on their use on incense, these buddhist monks...

Daito (Great Pagoda, rebuilt in 1937) has a 49m high budda inside.

Torii gates

these steep steps led to the image below

a rooftop view of Koyasan

In our wanderings my friend brought herself some tradtional footwear from a local shoe shop for 5000 yen. A bargin, apparently ~

if was fun watching her walk back in these

And then there was OKUNOIN, a cemetery the likes of which you have never seen, with over 200,000 gravestones dedicated to people throughout it’s long history, from the first ever samurai and the kobe earthquake disaster 16 years ago to the termite exterminator company, out of respect for the loss of life. 110 out of the 250 daiyos of japan (feudal lords who owned the lands in japan) were buried on the grounds. It comes with many stories, so I'm glad we had a tour guide that spoke good english.

the cross-dressing Kobo Daishi, if make-up is applied you get blessed with good looks. I dug out my cherry chapstick for some of the action ~

 Inside the sacred temple photos weren't allowed, but my friend managed to sneak a few anyway. Here's the ceiling, and lining the walls were thousands of tiny buddha figurines with name plates on them, a tribute to all those who donated to the temple.


this room smelt great from all the incense

There are even gravestones for major companies, which I didn’t really understand, complete with a little meishi slot for business cards to let the spirits know you dropped by to say hello.

Tierney sensei popping in his buisness card

Jizo's were everywhere, this one happy in his lil broken house

more jizos, little gods that take care of children

rock garden

if you look down this well and don’t see your reflection you die within the next 3 years

There was also a rock that everyone had to try and lift with one hand, and if it was too heavy for you it meant our sins were too great. Very unfair challenge for the women because that stone was really heavy! But it was more technique over strength because I managed to lift it with my stubbornness, and apparently it means I have the power to over come my sins. Awesome. ^^

There was a bunch of other things that I'm too tired to put up right now. But yeah, Koyasan was great.