Traditional temple stay - Koya San

Japans Kii peninsula has long been a mystic area, and therefor is littered with sacred sites. Koya San is one of them. This is where the tomb of Kobo Dashi: the founder of the Shingon school of Buddhism, is. Koya San is a mountain, or rather a plateau, where you will find more temples than houses. The place to spend the night here, is of course in one of these temples. So we did.

Cable car up the mountain 

We took a train from Osaka to the base of the mountain. Once there,  a steep ride with the cable car brings you to the top.  We took bus for the final leg to 'our temple': Muryoko-in.  Once registered, we got our slippers, and a monk showed us to our room.
This was a simple Japanese room: separated by paper walls, futons to sleep on, a few cushions to sit on and yukata (casual kimono) to wear.

Our room, with red slippers in the hallway

After our check in we walked a bit through the town, and then back to our room for dinner. This was a traditional Buddhist dinner: vegetarian and without strong smelling ingredients like garlic or onions. With a quiet knock on the door the monk announced his arrival, and then entered the room with neatly stacked tray tables. Like all food in Japan, this was beautifully displayed.  And tasty too!

Dinner is served

After dinner we took a quick dip in the traditional (shared) Ofuro, layed out our futons and were asleep by 10 pm. The next morning our alarm was set to 5 am! 

We had been invited to join the Gotomaki fire ritual, and being in a temple, we really wanted to. With some other guests, we sat in the back row of the ceremonial room.  The ceremony took about 80 minutes and we both were really glad we were there.  What was it like?

The room was very dimly lit, and one monk was continuously chanting. The other monks joined him intermittently. A fire burned, being fed by one of the younger monks. The whole esoteric atmosphere kind of drew us in. At the end we were invited to participate by adding to the fire and joining the final chant. We didn't take photos but just enjoyed it.

Koya San street view

During our visit a Swiss monk lived in the temple, and he invited us for a little chat afterwards. While drinking tea with some sweets he explained the ritual, the different elements of the Shingon Buddhism and temple live in general. This really added that bit extra to our temple stay. And after our chat.... it was time for breakfast, which we had in a communal room with the other guests.

One of our breakfast dishes