December 14th, 2023

Day 11

Today is the day that I visit Koyasan, complete with my booked experience of living inside a real freakin’ buddhist temple. Ever since I’ve read that you can live in an actual temple, in Japan, I was stoked. Can’t book it on the Koyasan website; called them and they said there is no record of my request. Just book it on a hotel booking website. It is much more convenient.

So yes, after my crazy day yesterday dealing with Japan’s troubled past and present with its strip theaters, I am still heading towards a Buddhist temple, a place so holy that people with filthy minds like me should not even try to enter. But I’ve paid, so.

After waking up, I grabbed all my stuff and headed straight to the train station. My hotel for yesterday is really close to the Namba Station, or I should at least call it, the Namba Terminal. It is the terminal for all stations if you want to go somewhere far away. Anyways, got to the station, swiped my watch against the IC Card pad, and immediately regretted it because I was hungry. Fortunately there is a Chinese bun place and a noodle restaurant. I didn’t want to miss my train by waiting in a restaurant, so I went ahead and bought two buns. I finished one of the buns first, and then saw a train that was supposed to head to my destination of transfer, so I got on that train. The door didn’t close for a while, and in the mean time, I checked Google Maps, and according to Google Maps, I got on the wrong train. It probably would be fine if I just got on this train, which is earlier than the one I am supposed to get on; but I didn’t want to risk it, so I got off, and finished off the second bun.

That is when my train arrived, I got on, and got off at my supposed transfer destination. It was a lengthy train ride too. I forgot the train station I was at that time, but it is the only place where you can reach Koyasan. It is also filled with location markers of where you need to go if you want to get to Koyasan, so you won’t miss it. But just to be safe, I asked a station staff if the train will head this way, and he said yes.

After standing in the wind for a while, the second train arrived. Sat on that for a while, reached the second transfer destination. The second transfer destination takes you to a cable car platform. When they use a word like “cable car”, you can’t help but imagine that you will be getting onto a moving box where there is no solid ground and will drop to your death if anything went wrong. Turns out, it wasn’t a “cable car” at all.

This is what the “cable car” looked like. It was no cable car, it was just a very slanted train car. It looked like the train took an upper cut and was 45 degrees upwards forever. It was an interesting experience though, because you are level at all times. The train car being 45 degrees doesn’t mean that the seats are 45 degrees either; there are stairs inside the train with the seats being level all the time. In hindsight, I am guessing that there really used to be cable cars here that take you to the top of the mountain; but as technology improves, or maybe someone actually did fell to their untimely deaths, it was upgraded to the new train. Here are a couple of videos to illustrate this very “unillustratable” situation.

After the cable car reached the summit, we all walked to an assortment of bus stops in a giant bus assortment stop, lack of a better word, and I got onto a bus that stops at my destination, the temple that I will stay at for a night.

Temple name: Koyasan Onsen Fukuchiin

Address: Koya San 657

Price: 1259.08 RMB (178 USD) [Dinner and Breakfast Included]

Verdict: ★★★★★

I followed Google Maps to everywhere I go, so I can get by without asking anyone; but I am super extra, so I decided to ask a security guard looking person next to the temple if this is in fact the temple that I am trying to get to. He confirmed my already known knowledge, and I got in.

I got there at the temple by around 1 PM, and check in is not til 3:00 PM sharp. Yes, there is check in time. When I got to the temple, a bald guy came to me and took my information. He was visibly relieved when he learned that I am fine with speaking Japanese. I am guessing that he is one of the monks meditating in this temple, just because he is bald. He is also very young, I am guessing around 30-years-old, with glasses. Based on that information, saying that him going bald is neither genetics nor a “reflective” fashion choice is an educated guess.

After leaving my luggage with him, I went on my way to do some more sightseeing. Koyasan has a history that is unmatched by any other mountains. It is a mountain full of temples, all of them Buddhist. There are a couple of interesting places I wanted to visit, and of course I had to choose the one with the most “mainstream history” connections.

Here are a couple of pictures that I took of the Tokugawa Family Memorial; a place, where by name, means that people related to the Tokugawa Shogunate are laid to rest. Unfortunately that’s not what that is. It is just two beautifully decorated and created wooden structures that was built to memorialize Tokugawa Ieyasu and his first son; both of whom were not buried here. It also isn’t the only one in Japan, based on the description on my ticket.

There wasn’t much to see at the Tokugawa Family Memorial, so I went next door to an unknown temple that I have no idea which deity is being served. Made a few wishes, and decided to go to the real deal — the Koyasan Okunoin.

Okunoin is the biggest temple and perhaps the one with the most history in all of Koyasan. By name, it means that it is the temple hidden the deepest. I was also kinda hungry, cuz it was around 2 o’clock and I haven’t eaten lunch yet, so once I got to the destination by bus, I went for the first restaurant I could see.

It was actually a building with many restaurants, I just picked the one with noodles. You can’t go wrong with noodles. I ordered the “Meat Soba”, because I know that once I get back to my temple, I won’t be able to eat any meat until lunch of the second day. It wasn’t very good, but it did its purpose of getting some meat into me before I go full on vegan for one night and one morning.

Restaurant Verdict:

★★★☆☆

After finishing my late lunch, I started to walk into Okunoin. Like its name, Okunoin is hidden very deep inside a valley, with that valley being graves and memorials. I’m not kidding, it is surrounded by “graves”. Why the quotation marks? Cuz I’m not 100% sure if people are really buried under those graves. It’s also not quite right to call them graves, because where you usually see a hefty piece of stone, you know, a set piece called the “tombstone”, yeah they don’t have them there at Okunoin.

It’s not to say that there are no actual graves in Koyasan. There is, just not at Okunoin. It’s better to call them “memorials” than “graves”, as they are there to either record some stuff or to celebrate some stuff. Instead of tombstones, you will see extremely weird stuff. For example, at the entrance of Okunoin, there is a memorial with a structure that not just resembles a rocket, is an actual rocket replica. There is also one with just a coffee mug. The rocket one is a memorial for those who worked on the science project, and the coffee mug is for the people who worked for the coffee house. Didn’t take pictures, though, as it is not really a good thing to take pictures of someone’s grave, as fictitious as they may seem, and save them inside your phone. Not a good thing.

It looked very creepy. It’s from all sorts of companies. There is also one for Nissan, yes, the car brand. I knew Nissan from its English name, and didn’t know it had a Japanese name as well. Turns out, Nissan is the homophone of its Japanese name, which just means “Made in Japan”. Funny. Didn’t know this until seeing Nissan’s grave.

After a while of walking through the memorials of tens of hundreds of different shapes and meanings, I’ve reached the Okunoin. The real temple itself is up a couple flights of stairs, but it is in no way similar to the horrible situation that I faced when I visited the Onsenji Temple on Day 4. There is no photography allowed inside the temple, so I didn’t take any. It is very dark inside, with a couple of big pictures hung along the walls. There is also a “souvenir” stand where you can purchase Japanese Omamori with specific temple designs, and at the stand, you can purchase a piece of wood where you can write your name, your birthday, and your wish on it and return it to the monks so they can burn it during their fire festival.

I bought one of those pieces of wood to write my wish on it. You have to write your birthday in the Japanese way, though. I was born in the year of 2000, which is the 5th year of Heisei. My birthday would be Heisei 5th, June 28th. Don’t worry though, there is a chart on the table for you to make sure of your own birthday in the “right way”. After I returned the wood to the monks, I purchased my first Omamori. I’ve always wanted to buy one, but I didn’t really care for the ones that make sure I am safe. I believe diligence is the only way to make sure of one’s own safety, not some magic spell. What I wanted to buy was the “relationship omamori”. It is the one where, I don’t think needs further explanation, gives you luck on charming the opposite sex. Still single at age 23, so I think a little extra help from magic might make it happen. However, I’ve been to many temples till now, all the relationship Omamoris are pretty ugly. They are either in very ugly colors or the design was bad. At Okunoin, though, its relationship Omamori is very small, and looked very cute; so I bought one.

After buying the Omamori and prayed a little more, there isn’t much else to do at the temple. I just walked back and decided to walk around town a little bit more before I go check out the temple I am going to stay for a night.

Okunoin Verdict:

★★★★☆

Here are a couple of pictures that I took before I got back to my temple. For the life of me I can’t remember the names of the place that I’ve been, but the first one is the entrance to the entire Koyasan complex; it’s just a door, nothing more. I also visited a few other temples, but they are all the same.

Though, there was a group of monks doing their special songs at one of the temples.

This is Fukunoin, my temple for the night! It was a guy with a full head of hair that greeted me this time, so I am guessing that he is not one of the monks. He did speak English to me right after checking my name, and would constantly move the conversation back to English after I speak Japanese to him. Good thing is that I am relentless and always returned the conversation back to Japanese.

It’s an interesting phenomenon. When it’s conversation between someone fluent in English but conversational in a second language, “A”, and someone who is fluent in the second language but speaks some English, “B", when “A” tries to speak with “B” in the second language, “B” will always steer the conversation back into English.

It’s very interesting, because it has both happened to me and happened to people who tried to speak Chinese to me. When I tried to speak Japanese to my Uncle John’s wife, who is Japanese, even though her English isn’t very good, she will keep trying to speak English to me. The same happened, although it’s me this time, when a blonde guy who speaks Chinese, spoke Chinese to me, I don’t know why but I always wanted to speak English to him. I don’t know why that is, he is perfectly legible in Chinese; it’s just seemed easier for me to speak English to him. I think the same thing happened when Japanese who speak English always will speak English to me. Anyways.

This is a quick video rundown of my room. To be completely honest with you, it looked exactly like the Ryokan that I stayed at on Day 4. It’s good and bad. The bad, well, it looks too much like a Ryokan and doesn’t feel like staying at a Temple. The good, well, it is modern enough so it makes life so much more comfortable.

So yeah, it’s not the typical temple that you would have in mind. My room has a private toilet with bidet, water faucet, wifi, and electricity. The temple lodging that you would imagine, the one where you will sleep in pitch darkness, no electricity and no wifi, yeah that’s not it. I would be lying to say that I am not at least a little bit disappointed that this doesn’t feel like a real temple.

What’s more interesting, though, is that this temple also has its own Onsen. I kid you not, it’s even in its name, the Koyasan Onsen Fukuchiin. I took a bath and dipped myself in Onsen before heading for dinner. Again, it looked just like a normal Onsen at a normal bathhouse.

Dinner, though, holy shit, excuse my words, but holy shit it was so fucking good. It was the best fucking food I’ve had in Japan this time around, and I mean every word I’ve typed. It is literally the best food I’ve had in Japan. It’s completely vegan, and you will feel hungry about 30 minutes after you’re done with dining; but it’s the best food I’ve had thus far.

There’s no meat at all, but you don’t miss it. The way of cooking here is called “Shojin Ryori”, a special way of cooking that uses just the typical ingredients like salt and soy sauce. It is so well prepared, though, you don’t miss meat at all. Hell, some even tastes like meat. There is also a vegetable tempura that I forgot to take a picture of, where you dip it in matcha powder. Needless to say that I am completely amazed by the food here and the quality is unbelievably good.

Shojin Ryori Dinner Verdict:

★★★★★

After dinner, I took a walk around the premises. The temple has a lot of collections, and would be better to see them during daylight.

I look like a freakin’ samurai.

Here is a look at the Onsen. Looks pretty good.

Here are the merchandises that they sell here at the Temple. They don’t look that good in quality so I didn’t buy any.

After that, I went back to my room and had a decent, if not so so, sleep. I have to wake up by 5 AM in the morning, because the temple has a morning class at 6 AM, and is one of the reasons why I wanted to experience the whole “living in a temple” thing despite the price. Why wake up by 5 AM you say? Well, I always take a shower after sleeping on someone else’s sheets, and I want to be ready by 6 even after taking a dip in the Onsen again.

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