Japan: Koyasan

Weds 10th May

We got a slightly later train so we could squeeze in some 10am karaoke! The kids are really enjoying it now as we’re all finding the songs they love.  Their highlight is the all you can drink slushies/ coke/ junk drinks – Henry says he is ‘drunk’ with sugar, haha! Current fave songs are Kesha, Tik Tok (yeah I know, totally not appropriate, the kids know all the ‘naughty’ words!) and Enter Sandman, Metallica. With a little Maroon 5 and Ed Sheeran thrown in for good measure. See our backpacks watching over! 👇

I managed to gather some bits of our junk we’ve picked up along the way to send them home on a shipping container – might get home after us!  It was only a small box but v glad to chuck any unecessary weight! I forgot what a total faff it is to send stuff in Japan (like most places), download an app, itemise EVERY single item, from magnets to key chains – nothing like getting out some stinky clothes in a post office to itemise.

Had ‘shabu shabu’ for lunch which is where you cook meat in a broth in front of you. We had kobe beef which was lovely (but not sure what all the fuss is about!).

Travelled on 2 trains, a funnicular and a bus to get to Koyasan which is one of the most religious Buddist places in Japan.  Lots of Japanese make a pilgramage here.  And there are 100s of monks and monasteries here. You can go and stay at a monastery and experience monk-life.

2023 version is a much easier version than 20 years ago.  The kids laugh so much at our monastery stories! T and I stayed at a monastery near Kyoto when we lived here and it involved getting up at 5am to do work (sweep the garden from memory!).  Then in the evening we did meditation while sitting in ‘seiza’ ie folded legs, for what felt like hours! Then we had to get up and walk around the room.  But my legs were dead so fell straight back down, then got the giggles, in a very serious monastery. Which set T off.  It still makes us laugh to this day!

This was lovely by comparison. It had a gorgeous Japanese garden, and we had a large tatami room to sleep in.  With a ‘kotatsu’ (heated table).  This was the only way to keep warm in winter when we lived in Shiz – they don’t have central heating, despite it getting really cold in winter! The table has a heating filament on the underside of it, and it has a ‘skirt’ of blankets (probably flammable!) to keep the heat in. So you stick your legs under and god forbid if you put your feet up too high and burn yourself!

The meal was tough for the kids – a hotch potch of Japanese vegan food – lots of tofu and random pickles. I quite enjoyed most of it. Kids not so much. Pickled plum is a hard sell at the best of times! They serve it in a tatami room looking over the Japanese garden – such an experience!

Anyway, after we arrived, we went for a little wander. It is stunning here – such beautiful temples. Breathtaking.  It was really quiet too as all the tourists had gone home, so it felt like we had the place to ourselves in the beautiful setting sun.

In the evening we did a night walk through the cemetery which was really cool. It is a huuuge cemetery, with hundreds of graves.  As it’s a sacred place, lots of people want to get buried here.  There are even corporate burial places – Yakult yoghurt, Panasonic, and even a rocket ship company! I guess if you work there long enough, you get to be interred next to your colleagues – let’s hope you get along with ‘Jeff’ from accounts in this life and the next!

Thursday 11th May

Today we did the ‘women’s’ monastery walk. Back in the day (1800s or so), they weren’t allowed in the central town (men only) so they used to do a walk around the town.  It was actually much harder then we thought, maybe our bums were still sore after climbing Mount Misen, but it was meant to take 2.5 hours but took more like 3.5 hours.  Another gorgeous walk though, trees, views, greenery, streams and temples.  

We are learning that both kids like a walk – especially H. It’s his happy place. He grabs a stick and doesn’t stop chatting through his imaginary games he’s playing – it’s lovely to see. And it keeps him at the front of the group, keeping us going!

Lunch was a little tonkotsu restaurant – specialising in breadcrumb fried meat. It was full of locals so seemed the place to go! We all got our fill on stuffing our faces with meat!

Went home via the cemetery to see it during the day – so beautiful. T and I had a ‘photo competition’ with the kids competing and bribes allowed (!). I won, obvs!

The really large ‘statues’ are for old samurai clans – the larger the headstone, the more important the clan. Each block represents the five elements of Buddhist philosophy – earth, water, fire, air and space.

Also, the red ‘jizo’ statues represent children – so women come to pray to them during pregnancy. You’ll often see the statues dressed in a red bib or hat. Red is designed to ward off evil spirits. They are all over Japan and very beautiful.

These lanterns are so beautiful and are featured all around the shrine – they represent a person who is buried there – there are hundreds of them. It is so spiritual at night, they hang off the main shrine (you can’t take pics).

Another kaiseki dinner but with pork cutlet and potato wedges for the kids!

Friday 12th May

Got up 6am to watch the monks morning ceremony – C and I got a blessing with bells, and we put some wood chips in a bowl to burn. It’s very spiritual and I really like the way they sing.  We only stayed a few minutes (kids!).

H was desperate to go back to a playground we found so I took them first thing – what I love about this town is that there is a beautiful temple right next to it.

Big travel day to Kyoto. A bus, funnicular, train, train, bus, bus.  Koyasan is really quite hard to get to and fairly remote.  Definitely worth the trip – I loved it here, a highlight. Not quite sure why we didn’t go last time we lived here.