Temple stay, Osaka and Seoul

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After my 5 days in Kyoto I was off to stay at the Eko-in temple in Koyasan, Mount Koya is nearly 3000 feet above sea level and is the headquarters of the Shingon school of esoteric Buddhism. I had to catch 4 trains a cable car and a bus to get there but that is all part of the fun. Due to its height it was below zero most of the time and snowing. Many of the temples open up their doors as lodging for visitors and although it’s not cheap when you take into the fact that you get an amazing vegetarian meal and a breakfast it is quite reasonable (around £60 a night. I chose Eko-in as it is the only temple that doesn’t charge a single supplement. Included in the visit is a chance to perform some Sutra writing and an opportunity to meditate with the monks. Then before breakfast at 07:00 you can join them in prayer which is followed by the fire ceremony. This was one of the most memorable moments of my trip and definitely an experience.

After wandering round more temples at Koyosan I walked through the graveyard to Oku-no-in. One thing I didn’t realise until it was too late was that the graveyard was lit up at night and I wish I had visited it at night as well as in the day.

Osaka is a huge cosmopolitan city and not always on the tourist trail but I wanted to have a weekend night there after my temple stay and I’m glad I did. I met up with two US marines in the hostel and had a wild night out with them, but I did suffer the next day!! Osaka has one of the best aquariums in the world apparently and it even has a whale shark in one of their huge tanks but I gave it a miss as it would have been heaving as it was the weekend and I was a bit uncomfortable with the idea of a whale shark being in a tank!!

I then caught a flight to Seoul for 3 nights and took a walk around the city visiting an old imperial palace and a living museum of the old city. I had a walk down Gangnam street posing for a picture of the dance along the way. I visited an art museum with an exhibition of steampunk art which I was very impressed with it(being a fan of Howl’s moving castle). I also visited Samsung’s Delight centre in their head office to see what kit I can buy when it comes out this year, I have my eyes set on a curved TV!!

Then after returning to Tokyo for another interesting night in Rappongi it was time to return home. I absolutely loved Japan and I liked it so much I’m going back and I’ve never done that before!!

Sayonara

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