Koyasan

We were up early and on our way by 8, just in time to hit the rush hour in Osaka which we had to pass through on our way to Koyasan.The people there seem a little less gracious than other places we've been. We saw a guy deliberately bump into a lady who was sheparding a young child down an escalator. We were glad that we sent our bags onto Okayama and only had small backpacks to navigate through the crowds of hurrying commuters. But we got through the various stages of the journey ok and arrived up on the Mountain a bit after 12, in time for a very welcome lunch of toasted sandwiches.

The autumn colours are spectacular up here this time of year, and the trains and the streets are packed with mostly Japanese tourists. After lunch we dropped our bags off at our Shukubo - temple lodging- we are stating, then headed off to visit Okunion, a massive cemetery with over 200,000 headstones, clustered around Kobodaishi Gobyo, a building in which it is believed that Kobo Daishi remains in eternal meditation. The monks still bring food to him twice a day, and have been doing so for over a thousand years. The whole area is set in a forest of massive cedar trees, and on a beautiful clear day like today, with the sun filtering down through the foliage, it was special.

The cemetery is a who's who of Japanese history, but there are many monuments, large and small, beautiful and strange. One custom is placing a bib or hat on statues of Jizo Bosaro. Jizo is believed to watch over and protect children in the afterlife. The bibs are placed on the statues by those who have lost children, but also for the long life of living children. Some of the statues have beanies, some straw boaters.

The pathway leading through Okunion is designated a World heritage site, and rightly so.
As we walked along groups of O-Henro Sans were walking the other way, identifiable by their white robes and staffs. These are people intending to make the 88 temple pilgrimage around Shikoku.  The tradition is that they come here first, to announce their intentions to Kobo Daishi and ask for his support. Lovely to see the tradition in action. As an O-Camino San I approve, and feel faintly envious.


We headed back into town, had a coffee in a little café with the best view ever, then walked over to visit Reihokan Museum, which was a nice contrast to Museum of Kyoto - packed with interesting stuff and well explained in English. We stumbled back to the monastery, admiring the gorgeous vistas of maple and ginko trees in the golden afternoon light.

We have a lovely room in the temple, overlooking a garden with a waterfall and carp filled pond. We soaked away the aches of the day in our respective hot tubs, then were treated to a spectacular dinner, brought to our room by a lovely young monk, Zen-Ch'ing.

So off to bed. We promised to get along to the service in the morning so need to be up before six.