on the hike
entrance to the town atop Koya-san
the temple I stayed at
entrance to the graveyard
On the third day of November I went to Koya-san. Koya-san is a mountain in Wakayama prefecture… it’s about an hour from Osaka on the train. The train ride between Osaka and Koya-san was really beautiful. On one side we passed small towns and rice fields and on the other was the mountain and huge valleys and forest all around. And since it’s fall lots of the trees had bright red and orange and yellow leaves. It was really pretty and I listened to cat power and looked out the window and drew pictures. When we got to the bottom of the mountain got on a cable car that took us to the town up on top. It was raining a little bit but I knew right where to go so I asked a bus driver and got on the bus to my temple. By that time I think it was nearing 3pm so I checked in with the monks at the temple that I was staying at (it was called Eko-in). My monk was pretty nice and he was pretty cute too. He kind of reminded me f a baseball player ’cause a lot f Japanese baseball players have buzz cuts like the monks and have really round heads and stuff like him. It was pretty cool… the floors were all wooden and creaky and it all felt very expansive. There were long halls and windows that looked out over the gardens and out upon the mountains. It was a traditional room with tatami mats on the floor and quite big. There was a big window that looked onto a really pretty garden and wicker chairs across a tea table. After I put my stuff down I got right out ’cause I wanted to get a chance to go through the graveyard (Oku-no-in) before dinner. I think i set out on the graveyard around 3pm and dinner was at 5pm so i did a little rushing although i couldn't help but stop and just stare in complete and utter awe and explore a little. The trees were mammoth! They just went on for miles and miles till the hit the sky... like skyscrapers. I like how when you look up all the trees look like they are coming together to meet at some vanishing point some million miles away. It kinda reminded me of jack and the beanstalk. It was also a little like in Nikko because of all the huge trees and mountains and everything, but they seemed very different also. It was very astonishing and beautiful and such. So i walked through the graveyard for a while and there were a few other people walking around because it was a long holiday weekend and i clambered up a few hills and other rocks and bits of sticks and stuff to see what was hidden behind this and that. It was quite fun. It was also quite cold as I remember it. I commend sonia for strongly urging warm clothes and running shoes. To be on the safe side I turned back before I reached the end and went back for dinner, although it turned out that I had lots of time to spare. Dinner was a feast. I felt like a queen when the brought it in because it was piled high on all these pretty little trays, arranged in all these pretty little dishes and towered. I got a pot of green tea and hot saki (i couldn't drink it, it's just so strong) and a load of rice, vegetable tempura, soupy stuff, koya-tofu (spongy, cold, dry, and filled with a strangely sweet watery liquid that squirted out when you bit into it... i did not enjoy it to say the least), vegetables and it was mostly all very delicious. It was a traditional Buddhist monk meal, vegetarian and such. After dinner it was very dark. I decided to go for another walk in the graveyard. The guidebook said it was very spooky and magical and mystical at night. So off I went with no even a flashlight. The graveyard was very very dark. There were rows of tall stone lanterns along the path but they were only lit with teeny tiny electrical lights very sporadically along the way. It did not due at all. I walked a little ways and decided it was just too scary to go on. The wind was howling and I had a strong feeling that either all those Buddhist ghosts would protect me or they would be very angry and eat me up and i didn't want to risk it. So I went back and walked along the path next to the road where all the all street lamps were lit up. I walked all the way down to a junction seen earlier in the day, all he while muttering and taking deep breaths. I started to walk around a little amongst all the gravestones but it was quite possibly the scariest thing I have ever done in my life and I really just couldn't take it. I picked up my little legs and hurried my self as very fast as I could home. Walking around in the dark dark dark all by myself in a forest graveyard. I was quite proud of my bravery. Although I did wish the boys were there a little.
In the morning I woke up at 6am and scuttled off to find the monks and join the morning ceremonies. The shrine was beautiful. There were lots of little gold stands offering bits of fruit and a handful of spices or this or that and there were statues all around that always stared right at you. There were three of them and the main one knelt in the middle with the other two off to the sides. They all had books and sometimes the chanted all together and sometimes it was just one of the time. At the end we walked around the room and bowed at the alter. It was kind of like communion except we didn't have to eat anything. And there was the whole big huge group of old Japanese women, and i think maybe a man too, that seemed to have made some kind of pilgrimage there and they got special pieces of paper with their names on them and stuff. After that was done we went to a different little hut place where they had the fire ceremony. It was much more sparse and at the alter were little dishes with all these different spices and stones and leaves and stuff. And in the middle was a little roped off square which was the fire pit and there were pieces of wood stacked up for the bonfire and kindling and stuff. Throughout the ceremony the monk kept throwing things into the fire. All the spices and such. And at first I thought it was quite dangerous because there was only a little rope around the fire pit and an abundance of flammable objects around, but upon closer inspection it seems that the monks have a very particular and precise wrist flick to control whats going on so I'm sure it's all good. It was quite cool. All very mystical and such. After they put out the fire we all walked around the room and you were to bend your face toward the fire pit and gather the smoke to your face as a ritual of some sorts... I'm sure it cleanses you or bestows protection and good luck or something of that nature. Anyways, after that was all through with we went back to our rooms and had breakfast. For breakfast there was rice and soup, vegetables, and vegetables and some kind of tofu cold patty thing that was quite good. I went for another walk in the graveyard because I wanted to make it all the way to the end and see what was there and what was there was very beautiful. There was a set of halls and a temple having construction done on it and in one of the halls were thousands of golden lanterns. It was amazing the were all together in rows upon rows and they all shone like one big golden mass. I love that forest i do i do. I wandered around the town atop the mountain for the day, passing by temples, sitting on a bench to look at the leaves, stopping a souvenir stores and eating a mochi. It was a beautiful day and very sunny and nicely warm. I passed an area with a lane of red gates trailing up a small slope so I wandered in and at the end was a shrine. I remember thinking it was funny because there was this clearing in the forest with a really old traditional shrine and then there were all these plastic banners with corporate logos on them... I believe they were yellow and green... it was quite strange. On the way back to the cable car, I stopped off and decided to go on the "Women's Pilgrimage" hike. I think that is what it was called. It was a very nice hike up the mountain and around the forest and the path was quite narrow at some points with a steep decline, but i was quite lovely. I sat in the forest for a while and it was very quite and peaceful and was only moved to get myself going when some other hikers came by. I took the bus back to the cable car and the cable car to the train. The train trailed back through the mountains and I drank milk tea and ate a bun with red bean paste inside. I took the train to Osaka go on another and then I was home. The End.
