oya San (2) Nara, and (3) Kyoto. I went a little picture happy and now I need room to show some of them...The first two days of my adventures (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day) were spent on top of Koya San Mountain which is just south of Nara in the Kansai Region of Honshu (the big main isalnd of Japan).
I was a little worried about the first day of my travels because I had to take at least 8 different modes of transportation including: buses, trains, cable cars, a plane etc. So I kind of expected myself to get lost at least once, but surprisingly I made it there with little to no drama. Osaka airport and the surrounding area is really 
English friendly, and it was easy to find where I needed to go because there were English signs everywhere. I was also expecting on sleeping in a normal hotel, but when I got off the Koya San bus I discovered that I was infact booked for a temple lodging. Woohoo, my goal of hanging out with the monks for Christmas came true! This is what happens when you have a Japanese travel guide who can't really speak English. Well one of the monks had a little English so he was able to lay down the agenda of dinner, morning prayer and breakfast. My room is the first picture, and it was small and cozy with a cute zen garden just behind where I'm sitting. First was dinner, and one of the monks 
came to my room to get me. He brought me to this very traditional Japanese room with tatami mats and beautiful old Japanese pictures and my dinner was there waiting for me. (I know I promised to stop doing the peace sign in pictures, but I'm an addict, I just can't help myself). Anyways, the dinner was really delicious and completely vegetarian since I was staying in a Buddhist temple. No turkey for me 
this year, instead rice, tofu, shabu shabu, pickled vegetables, tempura etc. After that I went for a walk to check out the lit up temples and they were really nice, but the pictures didn't turn out so use your imagination. The next morning I woke-up at (*gulp*) 5:45am for 6:30am prayer. It was awesome. I was with about 10 other Spanish foreigners and one of the women was Japanese so she spoke Japanese to the monk and then translated to her husband and family in Spanish. My brain hurt after trying to translate Spanish and Japanese together. But I got the jist of everything and we prayed with the monks first all together while they hit crystal balls, then two by two we prayed at three different alters. We had to bring ground insense to our forheads three times and then bow once. After pr
ayer we had another vegetarian breakfast which was also delicious and then I was off for some exploring.
English friendly, and it was easy to find where I needed to go because there were English signs everywhere. I was also expecting on sleeping in a normal hotel, but when I got off the Koya San bus I discovered that I was infact booked for a temple lodging. Woohoo, my goal of hanging out with the monks for Christmas came true! This is what happens when you have a Japanese travel guide who can't really speak English. Well one of the monks had a little English so he was able to lay down the agenda of dinner, morning prayer and breakfast. My room is the first picture, and it was small and cozy with a cute zen garden just behind where I'm sitting. First was dinner, and one of the monks 
came to my room to get me. He brought me to this very traditional Japanese room with tatami mats and beautiful old Japanese pictures and my dinner was there waiting for me. (I know I promised to stop doing the peace sign in pictures, but I'm an addict, I just can't help myself). Anyways, the dinner was really delicious and completely vegetarian since I was staying in a Buddhist temple. No turkey for me 
this year, instead rice, tofu, shabu shabu, pickled vegetables, tempura etc. After that I went for a walk to check out the lit up temples and they were really nice, but the pictures didn't turn out so use your imagination. The next morning I woke-up at (*gulp*) 5:45am for 6:30am prayer. It was awesome. I was with about 10 other Spanish foreigners and one of the women was Japanese so she spoke Japanese to the monk and then translated to her husband and family in Spanish. My brain hurt after trying to translate Spanish and Japanese together. But I got the jist of everything and we prayed with the monks first all together while they hit crystal balls, then two by two we prayed at three different alters. We had to bring ground insense to our forheads three times and then bow once. After pr
ayer we had another vegetarian breakfast which was also delicious and then I was off for some exploring. The first area I checked out is the Okuno-In area which is a sacred cemetary for Japanese Buddhists. This is where past Emperors and their families are also barried. It sounds a little morbid and I was a bit iffy about walking around there, but I'm really glad I did. It has a really cool vibe, very calm a
nd serene. There are buddhas everywhere around there. The Buddha with the two children gazing up at him is my favorite I saw on my trip. There are hundreds of lanterns there lining the cobbled path and it was really cool walking through 
there early on Christmas morning. At the end of the walk is the Toro-do which is a sacred temple with hundreds of lamps, and a couple of them are believed to have been burning for 900 years. Anyhoo I'll add a lantern pic in my next post for Nara, they're ama
zing. I looked into buying one for myself and they're like $300-500 a bit pricey.
nd serene. There are buddhas everywhere around there. The Buddha with the two children gazing up at him is my favorite I saw on my trip. There are hundreds of lanterns there lining the cobbled path and it was really cool walking through 
zing. I looked into buying one for myself and they're like $300-500 a bit pricey. Next I walked to the opposite end of Koya San to the Garan area that houses about 8 different temples. The Konpon Daito was the prettiest one with its reddy orange coloring. You can see it in the pic with the three temples, and it's in the back peaking through. I got a bunch of pics with me standing infront of it but I just look like a tool in all of them, so enjoy some non-Lindsay pics. The garden was really spe
ctacular as well and that's where I took this bridge picture. I had some fun with my self timer with the torii picture (red gate). I tried a couple with other people taking my picture but 
they didn't turn out and then you're stuck there with the other person asking how it turned out and you have to lie and pretend it was really great.....yeah it's a keeper.... Anyhoo, that got old fast, so the next best thing was playing with my camera functions. I also saw next to one of the temples a post full of blocks of wood with white prayers tied to them. I g
uess people buy these blocks from the monks and then write a special prayer on it. On festivals the monks gather these all together and burn them, and once they're burnt it's believed that the prayers come true. I didn't write on one as I can only write the hiragana alphabet at this point and not real sentences.
ctacular as well and that's where I took this bridge picture. I had some fun with my self timer with the torii picture (red gate). I tried a couple with other people taking my picture but 
they didn't turn out and then you're stuck there with the other person asking how it turned out and you have to lie and pretend it was really great.....yeah it's a keeper.... Anyhoo, that got old fast, so the next best thing was playing with my camera functions. I also saw next to one of the temples a post full of blocks of wood with white prayers tied to them. I g
uess people buy these blocks from the monks and then write a special prayer on it. On festivals the monks gather these all together and burn them, and once they're burnt it's believed that the prayers come true. I didn't write on one as I can only write the hiragana alphabet at this point and not real sentences.The other part of Koya San that I really enjoyed was the train ride up there. There are two options a crappy JR train that's cold and cramped or the nice train I took that's only a few dollars more and totally worth it. I really had no say in which one I took, my travel agent did all the booking. But anyhoo she did her job. The ride is about 45 minutes and it's super pretty all along the mountains. The cable car ride is really cool too but my video for it didn't really turn out. But that's my rundown of the first two days of my trip. Hopefully I get my act together and post the other two quickly, but today I was having computer issues and it took for fricking ever to do this post. But enjoy.
-Lindsay
1 comment:
Sounds fun, man. I can't believe you actually made it up for the morning prayer.
Post a Comment