We had a quick brekker in the foyer dining area of Toyoko Inn before taking a taxi to Nara train station. We had a couple of train changes before we arrived at the Koya-san cable car station, and we took the cable car up to Koya-san.
Just outside the cable car station is a helpful bus cum tourist office that hands out maps and puts you on the right bus after enquiring where you are staying. The road leading to the main street of the town is very narrow and alongside a mountain valley, with just enough room for vehicles to pass, and hence, it is forbidden to walk to town, and one has to take the bus.
The bus dropped us after about 10 minutes just outside Eko-in, where the friendly monks gave us our slippers for the stay and guided us to our room, passing their lovely garden along the way.
Lunch was pretty DIY as is evident. Donuts and cinnamon rolls, ramen and chips. It was very cold and the table cloth like thing covering the table had a heater underneath, which was great for roasting your feet !
After a brief rest, we ventured out. Although there are a couple of temples and shrines of note in the town, we were quite "templed out" at this point and so headed straight for the star attraction - Okuno-in.
Eko-in is situated quite close to Okuno-in and so within about a 5 minute walk we were at the entrance.
Okuno-in is one of the most beautiful graveyards I have ever seen. The setting is fabulous - in the heart of the forest, surrounded by cedar and pine trees, lie row upon row of tombs and graves, most quite lovingly tended to, but almost all covered with moss. The path through the graveyard goes on for about 2 km till you reach the shrine at the end. It is a enchanting, moody and quiet space, allowing for introspection as you walk among the tombs and monuments. Even though there were a few other tourists about, it is for most part a fairly uncrowded space, and the people that you do see all seem unwilling to break the spell by loud talk or otherwise obtrusive behaviour. As dusk nears, the atmosphere becomes even more mysterious and dark, and when you do leave, its with a sense of deep calm and peace.
The 2km long walk is flat and paved all the way.
This is something we saw at other shrines too - 100 yen coins stuffed into the crevices in the bark of tree trunks.
We crossed this small stream and made for the main shrine.
Although we could not take pictures of the interior, the shrine below is called the shrine of 10000 lanterns. And there are, numbered and arranged in rows, on the walls, on the floor, hung from the ceiling, and they are all lit with small bulbs. Its a magical and spiritual sight, adding to the other worldlyness that this place exudes.
We retraced our steps through the graveyard back to the main road.
We returned to the Eko-in in time for our 5.30 pm dinner, which was our first kaiseki, or set menu meal. Since we were staying in a Buddhist temple, the food was vegan, with no meat, fish eggs or dairy. In Japanese this kind of food is called shojin ryori. It was a pretty good spread of soba, tempura, grilled veggies, lots of tofu, miso and rice. And beer if you want, which was pretty odd for a temple !
We wandered down to the bath, the first onsen of the trip, which was indoors, and as luck would have it, I was the only person in the female bath at the time. It is so easy to get hooked onto this, the minute you lower yourself into that warm water and feel all your tiredness melting away, you realise why the Japanese are really on to a good thing. More on onsens on the best of Japan page.
Cleansed and rested, we snuck onto our futons and under our quilts and with the heater gently spreading its warmth into the room, we slept early as we had to be up at 6 am for the morning prayer rituals.
