Morning in Nara dawned, annoyingly enough, bright and sunny. If I didn’t have to do laundry and be on a train by 11:00, it would have meant I could finally get that photo of the deer I wanted, but unfortunately my pants had gone unwashed for a day or two at this point, and I knew I wouldn’t have a chance to do washing on Koyasan (Mt. Koya) and so I took off for the laundromat on floor 5 and paid a fortune to wash all my clothes. That is, all my clothes except the pants which I forgot about in my early-morning bleariness, which sat on the floor behind my chair in my hotel room spending their time being very un-washed. Discovering this upon loading my clothes into the dryer, I retrieved my pants and a stray sock and went back down for round 2 with the laundry.
Having been successful in the pants-washing but failing in the deer-photographing, I checked out and plodded back to the train station with sunshine beating down on my back, reminding me with every photon how absolutely wonderful the day was for going to the park. I almost wish it had been raining. Almost.
The train ride to Shin-Imayima was blissfully tree-free, and seemed incredibly quick after the few hours on the train the previous day. Buying my ticket for Koyasan, I got up to the platform and was assisted in finding the correct train by a delightfully pleasant Japanese man who spoke very good English. He was a great help. I had about 10 minutes until my train arrived, so I bought some dumplings to eat on my way to Koyasan and settled down to wait. The train trip itself was uneventful, but I did take a few photos on the way.
The unadorned platform of a station in regional Japan - it still had the awesome automatic ticket gates though.There were a lot of transmission lines in the areas we passed through. There are a lot of hydroelectric power stations in the mountains.
There were tiny mountain towns like this everywhere.
Similar detail to that I saw in all the castles I visited is present on these rooftops. You need to go a fair way out of the cities to find areas without apartment buildings.
The trip to Koyasan allegedly involved a cablecar, so I was looking forward to getting some beautiful (if chromatically-aberrated) photos of mountain vistas, but unfortunately the cablecar that awaited me was rather different in design compared to the ones I am familiar with. More of a train with wheels, hauled up the mountain by a cable, the cablecar offered little opportunity for photos, but I did take a couple.
The "car" part...
...and the "cable" part. The lines you see above are to provide electrical power to the heating, cooling and control systems.
The track branched for about 40m to allow the ascending and descending cars to pass each other in perfect synchronisation. What happened to the other cable here I don't know. It should be down on the other set of rollers.
The interior of the cablecar - The gradient of the slope is so uniform that the cablecar is built as an oblique unit. It doesn't change angle at all during the entire ascent.
Koyasan Station - this is where the cablecar docked.
Arriving at Shojoshin-in (a temple on Koyasan that offers accommodation) it appeared deserted, however after using the intercom to draw attention to myself, a lady who appeared to be an administrative assistant came running – literally – and welcomed me into the office near the front entrance. After filling out the usual paperwork, she asked me if I spoke any Japanese. Her relief was evident when I mentioned that I did – she told me (in English) that she didn’t speak English, and then proceeded to explain the location of everything in the temple, the procedures for dining and the morning ceremony to me. Thankfully for both of us, I was able to reply to everything she said with an honest “Wakarimashita!” – I paid for my stay and she took me to my room.
My room from the door - you can just see the foot of my futon in the bottom-left, and that table is a kotatsu - there is a heater under it, and the futon is used to contain the heat. When you're wearing a kimono, the warm air enters through the opening at the bottom and exits through the neck, keeping your whole body warm.
Looking towards the door. The room was quite large.
The only wall you haven't seen yet. The TV didn't go on of course, but I did use the free wifi they offered. Rather unexpected and out-of-place in a temple, I thought! But I'm not complaining.
I elected to bathe after dinner, and so I settled down with a cup of green tea and my laptop, did a bit of reading and drafted a post for my blog. I only discovered the wifi later in the evening. I also acquainted myself with the kerosene heater which was a little smelly (as kerosene is wont to be), but got the job done.
Mmm, green tea.
Instead of the phone call I had been told to expect regarding dinner, a knock at the door alerted me to the presence of a man who bore instructions for me to proceed downstairs to a dining room. As it turned out, I would be eating alone, and so I settled down on a cushion in front of two low, small tables packed with dishes in a tatami-floored room. It was fortunate I was eating unaccompanied, as I made a bit of a mess. Picking up a bowl of clear broth with seaweed and another vegetable (what type I am unsure) in it while trying not to knock over the small bowls that surrounded it, I slipped and broth slopped everywhere! Fortunately I managed to avoid spilling it on the floor and the tables had a reasonable lip around their edge to catch liquids, a fact I’m very grateful for!
The dishes were all vegetarian of course, and there was more pickled stuff than I was expecting. A lot of it was familiar, and I at least made a dent in all but two things on the table. Those two things were tofu (I tried a bit of it, but the texture is a huge turn-off for me) and a kind of wet spongey grey rectangular sopping thing the likes of which I had never seen before. The taste was uninspiring, though not unpleasant, but the texture (not entirely unlike foam rubber soaked in water, but not as chewy) was a real turn-off for me, and I found myself unable to eat it. I’m not sure what variety of rice they had, or whether they boiled it with herbs in the water or what, but it was absolutely delicious. They also somehow managed to tempura-fry a lettuce leaf. There was a plate with four strawberries and what seemed to be cream for dessert. I was surprised at this, because I didn’t see any other dairy product in my time there.
Heading to the Japanese-style bathing facilities I spent more time debating whether I was doing the right thing than I did actually bathing – this may have been a subconscious delaying of the time when I’d have to disrobe in a potentially public setting. I spent probably 5 minutes debating whether I had turned up at the right time, since the oil heater in the outer room was off, and the bath had wooden covers over it. I could remember that bathing time was from 4:00 until 9:00, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember if it was AM or PM. A lot of stuff is done in 24 hour time here, and so after getting my outer layer (the Kimono I was wearing over my Yukata) off, I suddenly realised this and so hurriedly put on my Kimono again before heading back out to go check the time. About this time I noticed a sign that read ”Bath Time: 16:00 to 21:00″ in the hallway outside the outer bathing area. I went back in and once again disrobed and proceeded into the inner chamber. I won’t go into great detail on the bathing, but I will say that the soak I had in the bath after washing and rinsing with the bucket and showerhead provided was divine. The bath was made of wood, and the water was piping hot. The heat combined with the wood leant a beautiful scent to the air, and the minerals in the bath water made the water feel fantastic. Just the thing after a long day of travelling and a somewhat uncomfortable dinner kneeling in front of a low table.
I was fortunate enough not to see anyone else in the bathroom during my bath – it turned out I was one of three people staying in the temple, which has about 24 rooms available. That probably explains why. Usually they’d be a lot busier, but again, everyone is cancelling their stays. After spending another hour or two catching up with friends online (I noticed a commercial-quality wireless router in the hallway outside my room at around this time), legs keeping toasty under the kotatsu in my room, I had an early night so I’d be able to wake up bright and early (5:30 AM) for the morning ceremony. So ends my first day on Koyasan.
6 comments
Michelle Levesque says:
April 30, 2011 at 9:33 am (UTC -4)
I’m heading up Mt Koya tomorrow morning — will be staying at Eko-in and then Shojoshin-in for a week. Any suggestions of things to do/visit?
Dan Cowell says:
April 30, 2011 at 6:08 pm (UTC -4)
A week! Wow! I only had time for an overnighter. You’ll probably be better prepared regarding warm clothes compared to me, so I’d definitely recommend doing the full walk to the mausoleum, that I couldn’t do. If you take it slowly, it’ll probably take a couple of hours for the return trip, but there is so much to see along the way that you won’t event notice the time passing.
Are you going anywhere else on your trip?
Dan Cowell says:
April 30, 2011 at 6:46 pm (UTC -4)
In case you check this before you get to Koyasan, or if you check it while you’re up there – English-speakers are few and far between for the most part. I have a rudimentary grasp of Japanese and I still struggled a bit at times. Here are a few other words/phrases that could be useful, even if you write them down on a “cheat sheet.”
Wakarimasen – I don’t understand.
wa doko desu ka? – Where is ?
Wakarimashita – I understand.
Arigatou Gozaimasu – Thank you very much.
Gomen nasai – I’m sorry
A lot of the people I spoke to at Shojoshin-in had rudimentary English, and I don’t think you’ll have too many problems there, but a lot of people you run in to when out and about probably won’t be as proficient. Either way, those phrases will serve you well anywhere in Japan.
Noela Cowell says:
April 30, 2011 at 9:49 pm (UTC -4)
Wow, this was an interesting time, Dan. Kneeling down for dinner must have been quite hard on the knees, especially with the height you are. The bath time sounded delightful.
I could feel the warmth of the water, great! Strawberries for dinner was dellicious, but sorry to hear about the tofu – yes, I think it’s rubbery, too and no flavour. What I call desperation protein, meaning when I haven’t had meat for a while, I’ll eat it.
Sorry to hear it’s been so cold.
Michelle Levesque says:
May 1, 2011 at 7:04 am (UTC -4)
Thanks for the advice and the phrases.
On this trip so far I’ve been to Tokyo and Kyoto, currently on Mt Koya (arrived a few hours ago), and then Osaka, and then off to China.
Thanks again.
Dan Cowell says:
May 1, 2011 at 7:21 am (UTC -4)
Great to see you got to Koyasan without incident! After posting my comments, I had a read of your blog and found out about your half-marathons and the gigantic trip you have planned. No doubt by tomorrow afternoon you will have run (or at least walked!) over half of Koyasan!
With that in mind, there’s a walking/hiking track going from the Mt Koya cablecar terminal to the main villiage – I didn’t walk it personally, though I would have if I had an extra day or two there. After what I’ve seen of your blog, I imagine it would be relevant to your interests.
Unfortunately you would have to either go down and back the same way, or go down and catch a bus up (or the other way around if you’re after a challenge!), because the bus road isn’t open to pedestrians as I’m sure you saw on the way up.
Have a great time on Mt. Koya! I’ll be following the rest of your trip on your blog. It makes my two weeks look very humble by comparison!