A little hangover was felt this morning after the karaoke fun last night. We packed up and checked out and stopped for a quick breakfast in a bakery. We picked up some lunch supplies for later and headed to the station to catch a rather convoluted route to Koyasan. 

We eventually ended up on a small old fashioned train travelling along a steep cliff edge winding through The Valley and up the mountain. We arrived at a small station at the end of the line where the only place to go was onto a cable car.

 We caught the venicula up the mountain until we reached the base of Koyasan. From there, we caught a bus to Eokin, our temple and room for the night. We took of our shoes and were given slippers and shown to our room. It was incredible! It was a small washitsu room with paper and bamboo doors and windows, bamboo floor mats, a balcony with bamboo table and chairs and a floor table in the middle with a blanket under it. You could plug your table on to make it heated so when you sat on the floor underneath the table, the whole thing became heated. 

Washitsu bedrooms in our temple

Before dinner we had a meditation session in the meditation room. We were guided by a monk to begin but after a couple of minutes we were left to meditate alone silently for around 20-30 minutes. It was a difficult task with so many people in the room and having an extremely over active brain!! The idea is as soon as we have a thought enter our head, we don’t dismiss it but instead picture it as a small stone in a big garden and it is one of many stones which is less important than he bigger picture. Thinking like this and counting my breaths made it easier to achieve a meditative state although I think a bit more practice may be in order! 

After we had dinner which was in a separate room because there were so many of us but it was just as nice as our bedrooms. The amount of different foods served was incredible and because busdhists are vegan, it was all vegan so Emily, my mum and I didn’t need to pick through it all! It wasn’t my most favourite of meals but definitely the most interesting so far. And the experience was incomparable to any other.

After dinner we met for a walk through the cemetery. It is the largest cemetery in Japan with over 200,000 bodies mostly of monks. It’s set in a huge forest with tall, thick troubled trees. We were given lanterns to carry through as we walked and it was a little eerie with all the statues and minimal light. We walked for what seemed a very long time until we reached the Mausoleum which is dedicated to the important monks of Koyasan. We were lucky as it was a special night and therefore a special service was taking place in respect of the monks. The mausoleum was incredible and although freezing cold inside, it had a warm glow from hundreds and hundreds of wooden carved lanterns on the ceiling of all different sizes. 

Koyasan is the birthplace of esoteric Buddhism in Japan. Kobo Daishi built the monastery in the mountains away from the cities to allow a place of calm and to train monks in 835AD. There are around 1000 young monks practising in Koyasan at one time. It is believed that he is still alive today and the history, respect and calm felt there is indescribable.

After we went back to our room where we practiced calligraphy. This wasn’t an artistic event but a meditative and spiritual event. You must cleanse and purify yourself before putting on clean clothes which was a like robes/kimonos. You must then say your prayers before writing out the verse in Japanese characters with a calligraphy pen. While doing his you must also repeat your wish in your head continuously. The whole thing took around 30 minutes and a lot of concentration. You must do all of this and finish your verse or it is bad fortune. After we had finished we have them to the monks for them to bless and burn in their next ceremony. 

My Japanese writing of the heart sutra