Koya-san

Koya-san is a small town in the mountains. What sets Koya-san apart from other mountain towns is the amount of temples found here. Of the more than 1000 temples that are said to have been there at some point, about 100 are still standing today.

Why so many temples? Well, Koya-san happens to be the headquarters of one school of Japanese Buddhism called Shingon Buddhism. The founder of Shingon Buddhism is buried in Koya-san (well, maybe not buried: he is said to be meditating in a specific temple - which nobody has entered since 835).

Many of the temples offer lodgings to travelers that come with monastery food and attendance of a morning ceremony, so that's exactly what I did, in a temple called Eko-in.

Hallway in Eko-in temple

 The biggest problem with my temple stay was, in fact, the weather: it was snowing throughout the day, and the night was about -8 degrees cold. Not the best conditions to sleep in a Japanese temple with non-insulated wooden walls.

It's snowing!

Icicles on Daimon gate

My room was fairly similar to the room in the Ryokan I stayed in in Nagasaki: floor covered with tatami mats, low table in the middle of the room, bed is a thin futon that is stored in a closet during the day and prepared after dinner. The main difference: this one had a nice view! :-)

The meals were very interesting because they were typical monastery food, called Shojin-Ryori: no meat, no animal products, no strong herbs or spices. Dinner was served at 5:30pm - a little early for my taste, but appropriate considering the morning ceremony starts at 6:30am which is also a little too early for my taste. Breakfast was served at 7:30am, after the morning ceremony, and was essentially a slightly smaller version of the dinner, consisting of rice, miso soup, tofu and vegetables.

The morning ceremony, conducted by the head priest and one other monk, consisted of lots of chanting and incense. The head priest gave a long explanation after that, but unfortunately entirely in Japanese, so I have no clue what they were actually doing. After the morning ceremony, there was a change of location from the main temple to another building. There, the head priest performed the fire ritual (more explanations offered in Japanese).

After dinner, the temple offered a guided night tour of the famous - and huge - cemetery. A young monk led the English tour and gave lots of background information on Buddhism, meditation, a monk's life, and the history and significance of this particular cemetery. This tour was probably the best part of my entire Koya-san visit.

For example, have a look at these Buddha statues:

You can see that a kid is splashing water onto one of them. But why? The reason is simple: there is a bridge nearby leading to the most sacred part of the cemetery (where the Shingon founder is meditating). Before crossing the bridge, you are supposed to wash yourself in the river - or you can imagine washing yourself while splashing water on the Buddha statues.