Blogs from Koyasan, Wakayama, Japan, Asia - page 3

Japanese Vocab: GW: Golden Week shuriken: ninja stars nihon-ichi: number one in Japan yasumi: break, vacation, holiday onsen: public bath house/hot spring with communal showers and large communal baths So in California I remember that up until high school, we had this little week long break (outside of winter break) in February, always around my birthday and President's Day, that was usually called "Ski Week" or something. I mean, officially it was probably called President's Day/Week or something completely bogus like that, but it was basically a week off so people could go out skiing in Tahoe and such. Here in Japan, we have Golden Week, where they line up a couple of holidays in a row to take out most of the week so families can travel. The government even helps out by subsidizing gas ... read more

Koyasan Japanese Vocab aki: fall/autumn kouyou: the autumn leaves/the fall foliage momiji: japanese maple leaves rousokku: candle keitai: cell phone kirei: pretty November 10: Zach and I headed up to Koyasan (Mt. Koya) to see the changing leaves. Japanese people are very adamant that there are 4 distinct seasons in Japan (haha, as if they are the only place with seasons or something...). The fall season, aki is marked by the changing of the leaves or koyo, especially famous are the momiji and people travel to various places just to see the leaves and experience fall. This was my second visit to Koyasan- the first time I went with Zach to the Rousokku Matsuri, or the candle festival. It's during Obon season in the summer and everyone comes to pray and honor their ancestors and they ... read more

My trip to the secluded Buddhist community on top of Koyasan was a welcome treat after spending a very hot and hectic summer in central Osaka. I had traveled there on a whim one weekday morning while waiting for a train to take me into Umeda Station in northern Osaka. I couldn’t bear the thought of facing the fervid heat and congested stations that typify the city. Instead, I crossed the overpass and boarded the train heading in the opposite direction, to Koyasan. Koyasan is the religious center for the Shingon School of Buddhism. It is located in neighboring Wakayama Prefecture and is easily accessible by train from central Osaka. This religious community was formed over a thousand years ago under the guidance of a famous Japanese monk and scholar named Kobo-Daishi. He is revered throughout ... read more

Another night with Hell’s Angel - Gene, after keeping me awake swearing at Jess all night, finally went to sleep on the Japanese-style bathroom floor, which measured no bigger than 4x2 ft. Hung-over on lack of sleep the following morning, we rushed to the post office to send home our most recently purchased souvenirs. Not in any mood to fight the language barrier, I let Gene handle all communications with the Japanese behind the counter while Jess went to handle the purchase of our train tickets. I had officially become the bag lady. Scrooge, who was on less than two hours of sleep, had zero patience for my left-handed, snail-paced writing and scolded me like a juvenile to speed things up. However, with my no-need-to-rush Lukowski attitude, I of course continued to take my time. Before ... read more