Blogs from Koyasan, Wakayama, Japan, Asia

Każdy relaksuje się na swój sposób. Czasami życie uniemożliwia rzeczywisty odpoczynek, czasami sami dokonujemy wyboru spędzenia czasu w sposób, który nie jest w rzeczywistości fizyczną "labą". Mimo, że odległość jaka dzieli Kawaguchiko i Koyasan to ok 476 km, to przyzwyczajeni do faktu, że w Japonii pokonuje się takie trasy Shinkansenami w 2-3 h zupełnie pomineliśmy przy planowaniu czas jaki potrzebny będzie nam na przejechanie z jednej miejscowości do drugiej. Więc wczorajszy dzień miał być dniem zasłużonego odpoczynku po stawianiu czoła tajfunowi na Fuji-san. Niestety nie był. Gdy wieczorem w poniedziałek zaczęliśmy planować nasza podróż za pomocą aplikacji Japan Transit Planner (polecam! ), wyliczyła ona, że podróż zajmie nam około 7,5 h! Sprawdziłem jeszcze raz wprowadzając korektę dotyczącą JR pass i faktu, że nie możemy korzystać z najszybszych Shinkansenów, Nozomi. Wyszło ... read more

Hello my fellow travellers! I slept exceptionally well last night and when I woke up this morning I felt completely restored. The last remnants of pain in my legs and feet was gone and I really felt a sense of hope and anticipation for the six days of hiking that lay ahead of me with start tomorrow. For today however I still had a full day of exploring the rest of Mount Kōya ahead of me before returning to Osaka to meet with Kenichi and Yumiji again to spend one more night at their place before the third and longest part of my pilgrimage begins. The morning began with an early morning service at 6.30 am and there were actually quite a lot of guests that were attending it. To my disappointment though it didn't really ... read more

Haïku du jour On ouvre la porte du grand temple journée de printemps (Gusai) Cimetière de Koyasan Haut lieu de la spiritualité bouddhiste, shinto et tout simplement japonaise, le cimetière s'étire sur deux km sous des cryptomères (cèdres du Japon) vieux de 5 à 600 ans et hauts de plus de 50m. Il rassemble des milliers de monuments funéraires dont beaucoup en forme de pagode (croquis de mon carnet) composée de six éléments : A la base, la fleur de lotus (1) ; au dessus un bloc parallélépipédique qui représente la terre (2) ; sur monté d'un globe aplati : l'eau (3). Puis le feu symbolisé par un bloc en forme de "plat à tajine" (4) Au sommet, sont superposés le vent (l'air) genre de coussin rond (5) et, enfin, en forme de grosse figue, le ... read more

Before embarking on this trip, I suspected (correctly, as it turned out), that Kyoto would be overrun with tourists. I knew I wanted to experience a culturally significant site without too many tourists, and I also wanted to experience shokubo (temple lodging). Scanning through the blogs on this site, I found that pretty much everyone who had blogged about Mt. Koya (commonly called Koyasan) had a positive experience there. I decided to investigate further. From my initial research, I learned that Koyasan is the spiritual center for Shingon Esoteric Buddhism, and that it has over 120 temples, with a significant number of them offering lodging. The cheaper lodgings seemed to already be fully booked. After some research, I settled on Jokiin, which appeared to be centrally located and had very good reviews. The price was a ... read more

We got up around 5:40-5:45 am. I had slept really well. The temple is quite noisy, as the building is old, and the floors are pretty creaky when people are walking about. I had woken a couple of times during the night, once around 11:30 pm and then again at 2 am. There's nothing nicer than waking up, looking at the clock and then realising that you still have hours left in bed. The room was a little cool and I quickly put on my clothes and we headed towards the meditation room, stopping off at the toilet on the way. Some people were brushing their teeth and washing their faces, far too much effort for so early in the morning. There was a monk at the entrance to the mediation room and she had a ... read more