Koyasan

I forwarded my large holdall to Ise before checking out of The Bridge Hotel and walking to Nauda Station to catch the Nankai Electric Railway Express for the one-hour ride to Hashimoto where I caught the local mountain train to Gokurakubashi. The seating was unreserved and neither were full on this Saturday morning. I used my Kansai 2-day Pass.
At Gokurakubashi, there was a funicular railway to Koyasan Station where I waited for a local bus into town and got off at a stop near the Fudoin Lodge. The Lodge was one of 52 temples in Koyasan, out of 117 temples in total, offering traditional lodging to pilgrims. The Lodge was very smart. I had a ryokan-style bedroom plus a lounge,
Koyasan was founded about 1200 years' ago as a monastery for Shingon Buddhism. It is the start of one of the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage routes, going south down the Kii Peninsula.
I walked to the main complex of pagodas and other buildings at Danjo Garan, and then Kongobuji with its beautiful screen paintings plus the largest rock garden in Japan.
Back at the Lodge, I went to the onsen, and then changed into yukata clothes for the set vegetarian dinner plus sake in an attractive dining room, sitting on a low stool.
The heater was on in the bedroom because it was cool, Koyasan being at 900m in the Kii Mountains. It was surrounded by forests of cedar, cypress, red pine, hemlock fir and umbrella pine, all conifers.Read more