Monks for one night

Yesterday we went to Mt. Koya (or Koya-san) and stayed overnight at a Buddhist temple. It was rather above our standard daily budget, but it was totally worth it. You're not paying a steep price just for a nice hotel (a totally respectable choice, but far from our mind and our pockets at the moment), in this case you are paying for an experience, and one that we enjoyed a lot.

For more than 1200 years Koya-san has been the base of the Shingon Buddhist School. Over the centuries it has become a center of pilgrimage and multiple temples have been built: there are now more than 50 temples, in a town of 4000 people, and many of them offer lodging to worshippers and tourists.

We arrived here with one of the first trains from Osaka, more than happy to exchange the borderline look of Shin-Imamiya for the tall trees and fresh air (actually more than fresh... cold) of Mt. Koya. Luckily they let us check-in immediately at our temple, and showed us our minimalist (or rather 'zen') room: just a small table at the center of the tatami's floor and a balcony with a splendid view over the temple's garden. No bed nor futons anywhere. A monk explained to us the routine of the temple: meditation class at 16:30, dinner at 17:30 in the room, optional walk to the cemetery at 19:15, then morning prayer at 6:30, followed by fire ceremony at 7:00 and breakfast at 7:30 in the room again.

View of the garden from our balcony.

Everything seems a little bit 'early', but after all this is a temple... we should be glad that breakfast is not served at 4:30 or earlier! We enjoyed the complimentary tea and biscuits sitting on the cushions on the floor, looked in awe at the autumnal colors of the garden, and then headed out to discover the city before dinner time. We actually just roamed the few streets and the many temple grounds for a few hours, savoring the peace and quiet of this sacred place, after the crowds of Kyoto and the weirdness of Osaka. The highlight of the town is certainly the big Okunoin cemetery. We spent about an hour and a half walking around the mossy tombs and the ancient Buddha statues. We would visit the place again at night with a monk as a guide but it was so charming in the daylight that it was hard to leave it. We would have probably stayed longer if we hadn't had such a tight schedule.

The tower of the Danjo Garan Temple (it is actually rather huge).

Buddhist tomb with symbols of the five elements that compose the universe.

Back at the temple we enjoyed a simple class of meditation. At the peak of our relaxation a thunder made the wooden walls of the room tremble, shaking a bit our concentration. Out of the blue, a violent storm of wind, rain and ice fell over the temple, and just almost as fast it went away. It was so unexpected that at first we thought that the monks were just washing the temple from the outside, or playing some 'Sound of Nature' record to improve our experience. It turned out that it was just a passing storm, that almost got our night walk at the cemetery cancelled. In any case it was time for dinner, served at 17:30 as planned. We put on the 'yukatas' (a sort of japanese pajamas) that they had left in the room for us, and admired how the monks would move our little table to one side of the room and replace it with four smaller tables (two for each of us) full of tiny servings of vegetarian dishes.

Shojin-ryori vegetarian dinner. Very few of those things looked familiar.

Dressed as a perfect Japanese couple we went through the dinner with a well-mannered joy and a bit of surprise at the taste and consistency of all those unknown ingredients. Everything (or almost everything) was very good, and the dinner was much more filling than we expected.

We already miss our yukatas.

After dinner two monks came in again, removed the small tables and prepared a bed in the middle of the room with futons and blankets. They definitely know how to make the most out of a little room.

Night set-up

Meanwhile our monk-guide announced that it had stopped raining and we would go out for the walk, even in spite of the high chance of more rain and the freezing cold outside. We wouldn't miss it obviously, but our pants are not made for this weather. The solution? Wear our pyjamas under the pants! Properly layered and insulated, we headed out into the darkness with a small group of other guests and the guide. It rained a little every now and then, but the walk was beautiful and extremely interesting, since the guide explained a lot of details about Koya-san, the Shingon current of buddhism and the story (and myths) about its founder Kobo Daishi. We even performed a prayer with sutras-chanting under a big lantern dedicated to Kobo Daishi and in front of the temple where he is supposed to be still meditating, after 1200 years.

It's much scarier when you are there in the darkness.

After the walk it was time for one last treat: a steaming 'onsen' (hot bath) to clean and relax ourselves. A bit of a test for D's shyness, but a great way to warm our frozen bodies and prepare for the night. Walking in a silent temple at night wearing a yukata and all the warmth of an hot bath. A day to remember.

Today we got up at 6:00, since we had decided to join both morning rituals. Well rested, in spite of the 12 degrees in the room (we had good blankets though) and the comfortable but rather hard pillow (it seems to be filled only with rice or some kind of seeds). Outside it was still raining and the temperature had dropped even more during the night. The pyjamas-under-pants tradition helped us endure the chilling experience.

Morning prayer.

Ceremony of fire.

The morning rituals are interesting but it has been hard to keep still for one hour in such a weather. We enjoyed much more going back to our room (11 degrees when we got back, but it soon heated up to 18!) to eat breakfast. We haven't mentioned it yet, but in Japan you usually eat for breakfast the same things that you would eat for lunch and dinner. This morning we had white rice, miso soup and a mix of vegetarian dishes. It sounds weird but it's actually quite nice.

Vegetarian breakfast. No croissant and cappuccino here?

It was time to pack and continue our journey. We payed the bill, asked for medical assistance to recover from a bleeding-wallet condition, and sat in the wifi room to wait for the bus. The room was heated and mildly pleasant, while outside the cold rain turned into snow for a few minutes. Snow? Yeah, it's definitely time to start thinking about Thailand and the warmth that we hope to find there. Nevertheless the visit to Koya-san has been a truly pleasant and rewarding experience. I'm glad we have decided to come here and stay overnight. Tonight a change of scenery: from Mount Koya to the island of Itsukushima (also known as Miyajima) and its famous 'floating tori'.