Wed and Thursday.
I will keep the posts in cronological order although they have been writen at different times over the last week.
koyaSan
Wednesday morning soar me off on a 9:01 train to Koya-san. The start of the train journey was uneventful music was listened too, scenery and suburbs were looked at as they dashed passed the window. The last hour of the journey was fascinating. The train slowed down as it started to ascend the mountain. the suburbs turned into town and the towns into pine forest as we climbed higher and higher. Through the gaps in the trees we could see views of the valley and of the mountain rangers around us. Our final stop by train was Gokurakubashi were the air was fresh and the temperature had dropped 5-8 degrees form Osaka. It was then time to get on a cable car to ascend the last kilometer to the top of the table lands the last form of public transport was a bus for that last six kilometres. I was staying in temple lodges overnight so had to such for my temple. A very pleasent monk took me to my tamin.... mat ans paper walled room. This is the first traditional style room I have stayed in. It was very pleasant . Once tea was served I got to sit in my room and look out into the garden.
For the rest of the day I walked to Okuno-in cemetery and spent time in the forest/graveyard leading up to Kukai mausoleum. An inviting path side lead me to out into a field and a new graveyard. I was very creepy as there were not many people who were berried yet so it was very bare. Waiting for people to die to fill it up. It was more creepy then the old full graveyard.
I think I sould take you through the 101 of Koya-san so ti makes a little more sense. Koya-san was f founded in 816 when founder of the Shingon school of Esoteric Buddhism, Kukai AKA Kobo Daishi, establised a riligous comunity on the table lands. Followers of Shingon believe that Kobo Daishi is not dead but in eternal meditation, waiting for the next Buddah - Miroku. Then he will be able to interpret the Miroku's message for humanity. Thus it has become very popular for followers of Shingon to leave some of their remains near the mausoleum so as to be ready for the next Bhuddah.
Before the musilium is the lantern house where hundreds of lanters have been donated twoare belived to have been burning for over 900 years. In the lanten hall there was a big gathering of monks be cause they were praying for all throughs that were effected by the earthquake last year......? It was such an amazing sound! Eighty or so monks all chanting the crackle of the fires as more fuel is placed onto them by careful monks. When the prays had finished all the monks go t up an filed out of the hall, there were attendants helping then put on their shoes when it got to the last monk though there were no shoes left! the monk had to waite for an attendent to bri ng another pair, but they were children sized and the monk had to walk back with his feet hanging off the end of his shoes. Luckily for him another monk ( with smaller feet) swapped with him. The sound off all the monks with their ceremonial shoes walking down the path was like rain on a wooden roof. I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time to see so many of the heads of the temples all coming together- apparently it doesn't happen very often. It was then back to my lodgings walking through the graveyard as the sun set. After changing into my robs I was brought dinner and got to taste Shojin- ryori (Buddhist vegetarian cuissine) for the first time. The food has no meat, fish, onion or garlic. It was a fantastic exprenece! There were about seven or eight different small dishes the ones I recognise were miso soup, tempura, different seaweed and pickled vegetables. There were also two different tofu dishes one where the tofu was made out of sesame seed and the other of soybeans. I got to read a collection of Buddhist stories and while they are beautiful passages about how to live well and be the best person you can be; I was a little un-nerved as to how many times men would kill there wives and sons because a daemon had tolled then to ( it was ok in the end because they were brought back to life ) but it was still a little upsetting. Then it was time to lay out the futon, put my head on a rice filled pilo and my feet on a japanes hot water bottle- which was shaped like a half an egg so I felt that I had my feet on a hot turtle.
Thursday morning I was awake bright and early to make it to morning pray at 6am. Then breakfast in my room once again consisting of Shojin- ryori. For the rest of the morning I got to wonder through the pagoda and temple district of KoyaSan- Garan. I also got to see a monk on a mobile. Without quite meaning to I managed to walk the three kilometre women's pilgrim path- I thought I may be going over the mountain to a bus stop but the 1.5km on the sign was just to the top of the mt! A lovely suprise hiking lead me up an mt and down the other side to a bus stop. I had to get do my Aragon impression as I had to run the last 600 through the forest so as not to miss the next bus that would take me back to my temple. It was then time to head off the table land and head back to Osaka.
I will now add in something the I wrote at the end of thursday:
"With three minutes to spare I managed to got on my train to Okayama it was a very close call. As I said previously the internet at my hostel in Osaka was very bad and it didn't support the web sight that helped me plain my travel. So I left for Koyansan without a timed plan to get to Naoshima I know I had to get a train towards Hiroshima and get at O.... But the timeing was up in the air. So when I got to Shin-Imara I had to get the help for a JR booking agent and he reserved me a seat on the 3:22 Shin Sakura. With just over 45 minutes to get to Shin-Osaka the race was on! I believe I out of the two directions on the Osaka loop line I must have chosen the slower of the two because I didn't get to Osaka station until 3 I then hade to wait for the 3:10 train to Kyoto so I could go the one stop to Shin-Osaka. Only 7 minutes until the train left Saw me doing a mad luggage dragging dash to platform 20 ( with the main theam song to Indiana Jonesplaing in my head- ready to leap through the closing doors of the train! After stowing away my luggage and finding my seat within seconds the train was off. I was a very fortunate traveler today.
It took me a total of 7 hours and twenty minutes, to get to Naoshima. I was very fortunate for my ipod and sketchpad that kept me occupied."
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