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Female monks
... and walking easily in getta! Hello, hello,
Finally, after months of talking about it, I managed to make my way to Mt. Koya. This famous mountain is the center of a small Buddhist sect introduced to Japan in 805 and there are over a hundred temples in the small town on top of the mountain. So, John and I figured we would book ourselves into a temple to try shojin ryori, the vegetarian cuisine of monks and participate in the morning prayers.... not to mention do a bit of exploring!
Despite not knowing the path, we decided to bypass the cable car to get to our hotel and started exploring some of the more discrete parts of Koya-san. Believe it or not, we actually had an uneventful, pleasant, and direct hike to the gates of the mountaintop where the town is located (yep - the old gates to keep women out - luckily this mountain is progressive!). Once we arrived we were pretty well swept up in the temple routine.
After a dashing into a local shop for some lunch, and realizing we were in the land of tourism (a few people didn’t seem to notice us!) Such a novel feeling... well,
Statue
Me and Buddha for the most part. Of course, when it got cold and we put our jackets on - even the foreigners looked at us - apparently bright blue is a popular colour in Texas and Vancouver - as we bundled up with the dropping temperature, we realized we had what appeared to be matching jackets!
Aside from being inept at blending, we visited a few local police stations to sort out the signs and maps (it’s challenging when they tend to change every corner you turn or every time you pick up another map - they actually frequently change the orientation of the map on the signs as well...?!). Once we were oriented at the temple and knew where our room was, we decided to take off for the hour we had before the 5:30pm dinner using no meat, no onions, no garlic, and very few herbs/spices.
The room was fantastic. Tatami mats and futons, a sliding door to a separate room with a table to kneel at and traditional tea and sweet bean truffle. Not to meniton, a fantastic garden view of the overly pruned and perfectionist bonsai looking trees that blend into the natural woods flowing up
Red Temple
One of the many temples the mountain. We could even see small carp swimming in the garden pond below.
We hesitated while dropping our bags, as temples have rooms with traditional sliding Japanese doors - and no locks, but we shrugged it off and went straight for the cemetery. It was much more massive than either of us had anticipated and we had to take on speed walking to make it back for dinner, just barely having covered one path of the cemetery and not really having time to take it in.
Two minutes after 5:30 we hustled in and were lightly scolded by the woman who had checked us in and immediately ushered to the dinning area. The room was enormous and there were two other sets of guests and a nice toasty heater (despite the daily sweltering heat, it is a mountain top and it cools to a chill in the evening). We chatted with the other guests and sat traditionally on our knees (for the first half at any rate) while the monks brought the various platters. Dinner consisted of about 15 different dishes (each dish varying in size from one bite to three bites with the exception of the
bucket of rice). There was cooked tofu, rice, tempura, miso, tofu soup, cucumber, eggplant, melon, sweet potato, plum, pickled vegetables, and much, much more. Each item on it’s separate ornate tiny plate and the aesthetics of each bite-sized creation was art-worthy.
After dinner (a long and enjoyable affair) we had to visit the Japanese bath since it is only open from 4:00-9:00 and if you don’t visit it, there is no alternative... so after a day of hiking, it was high on the list of priorities! We wrapped ourselves in our Yukata and made our way down. Unfortunately, the experience was a little tainted as there was a large group of drunken Russian tourists who were far too amused with the idea that you bath in a group setting, so while I was lathering up there was close to a dozed times the door would creak open, an occasional gasp and comment like "you’re naked!?!" and then some giggles followed by the pitter patter of her footsteps till she reached the room, reported the event to her fellow group members and inevitably after a few minutes curiosity would overcome one or two more of the Russians and the cycle
Me
Obeying simple rules, of course! would continue...
Nonetheless, soaked and relaxed, we were ready to try to make use of our hour left before they locked the gates (yes, they lock you in at 9:00pm sharp - so with dinner and bath, there isn’t much time for anything else. We went back to the cemetery to see it with the night-lights and had to go for another power walk to see everything. The stars were spectacular and all we wanted to do was retreat to a hill we had discovered earlier (branching off from the cemetery) and lie under the stars... but we were within minutes of the gates closing... .So instead we hustled back, did a bit of mischievous wandering around the temple, even teetered on some getta in the garden and retired to our room for the night.
The cutting beating of the drums jolted us up at six in the morning - my alarm had failed, so we threw on some warm clothes (mornings up top a mountain are also a wee bit crisp!) and went to participate in the monks prayers. The chanting of the Sumatras was very melodic and great for a meditative state, and the hour session
The doors are barred
The little one is barred at 9:00pm! actually flew by. The rest of the day we wandered through the town among various temples and set off on a few detours, which we actually ended up having, to turn back on.... lost in a forest, when you can actually see the city! Funny how small cliffs can force you back like that!
It was an excellent weekend escape from the city!
Cheers,
Trish xxx
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