Koyasan

two weekends ago we went to Koyasan, a small town on the top of Mount Koya. I've been wanting to go there before even coming to Japan after reading about it in the lonely planet guide. It was founded 12 centuries ago by Kobo Daishi for studying Esoteric Buddhism. It was about a 3 hr trip from Amagasaki on 3 trains and the subway and finally a cable car to the top of the mountain. We left home around 5:30am, which i think is the earliest i've woken up since living in japan.

as you can see my face doesn't like the early hours but i
think Mika probably smiles in her sleep.

here's the cable car. There were a couple of sumo wrestlers on here with us. They must have been famous because they had two photographers with them and everyone was staring at them. Mika didn't know who they were and i didn't care. was just worried about the extra 500kg of weight in the cable car.

this is part of Danjo Garan. the pagoda in the background was huge. these temples are still used by monks for training as part of the shingon buddhism sect. in the second temple there was a monk reading from a sutra, which added a nice atmosphere in the early morning.

the main reason we went Koyasan was because it's the first place in Kansai that the autumn leaves change colour. This is around Okunoin. it's a cemetary with about 500,000 head stones. It's become popular here for a company to have a site. The coffee company has a huge coffee mug as it's company headstone. Most of japans famous and influential people in history have a place here. by far the busiest cemetary i've ever been to. at the end of it all is a huge temple that is filled with 200,00 lanterns, no photos allowed though. It was the most amazing temple i've visited in japan. it was surrounded by an ancient cedar forest and a small river ran alongside the temple.