Koyasan

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Or as Susan puts it, "Kyosan."
After departing from Nagoya after the Cormorant fishing, we headed for Koyasan, the temple mecca of Japan. There are some 50 temples on this mountain, and all we had to do was get there before sunset to find a temple that will offer us lodging. Of course, we didn't get there before sunset. And the reason was that we wanted to do laundry before we left Nagoya, but the drying machine did a horrible job drying anything. We spent around 2 hours blow drying our clothes, setting us back in our departure time from Nagoya.
The trip to Koyasan included a 2 hour train ride from Nagoya to Osaka, then a transfer to a local train which took 2 hours, and ends with a dramatic 5 minute cable car ride up the mountain.
By the time we arrived at Koyasan it was 7PM, and it was dark, and when we approached a staff at the train station asking where we can find temple lodging he gave a helpless laugh and made a face that suggested we're royally screwed.
As per the staff's recommendation we took a bus to a local phone booth and started calling up the temples. One of the 3 temples we called had a room available, and after some negotiation agreed to provide dinner for us (at this point it was quite dark up in the mountain and it really didn't seem like anything was open).
Upon arrival at Rengejoin, we were greeted by a group of young monks... and they scurried around preparing dinner for us and making up our bed for us. One of the monks proceeded to show us around the temple, and talked with a weird accent with his eyes closed, with an odd choice of vocabulary. The experience was somewhat reminiscent of summer camp, except that it was their summer camp, and there was a strange youthful energy amongst these young monks (probably around 15-17) as they scurried around doing dishes and cleaning up.
There was a hot bathing facility in the temple and after a relaxing long bath, I took a stroll in the temple, and took a brief walk through the garden. It was a definite change of pace from the previous few days, and I found it relaxing just being able to enjoy the fresh mountain air and take the time to appreciate the garden.
The next day we woke up at 5:30AM to attend the 6AM morning service, which consisted of listening to 30 minutes of incoherent chanting by the monks. Though incoherent, it was oddly calming, and the group of visitors sat at the entrance of the temple and meditated.
Shortly after the service, we were served a simple vegetarian breakfast, and set out to explore the rest of the mountain. The main attraction being the huge mausoleum on the east side of the mountain. There were quite a few interesting sculptures, and tall trees created a holy atmosphere.
By 3PM we left Koyasan and headed for Kyoto.

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Photos

Koyasan
Graveyard of the orphans, each statue in the back is an orphan

Rogen-in
The temple we stayed at on Koyasan