Kōya San

I stayed at a monastery in koyasan last night which was pretty neat. Getting there was awesome, i had to take a train and a funicular which went really slow through an amazing mountainous forest. I had a very thorough explore of koyasan before i could check in because i woke up at 5am and just went with it so i arrived at the monastery at 830 with nothing to do until 3.

Again, there were a lot of shrines and temples that werent particularly noteworthy but walking through the okunoin cemetery was fantastic. It was a 400m path through giant Pemberton esq trees with moss covered shrines and the sound of gongs donging every now and then in the distance. It was a very peaceful stroll.

Honestly my first impressions of the monastery werent great. Mainly because it was $165 a night and the room was literally just a mattress on the floor. They redeemed themselves with the food which I think is where a majority of the price comes from because dinner had about 20 different types of vegetarian monk dishes that i could tell were all prepared with a lot of care. After dinner i went for a nice warm spa in the monasteries onsen and then fell asleep nice n early with my belly full and my heart content ahaha. In the morning i woke up at 630 to take part in the morning prayer which was lowkey boring af and then had another great meal for breakfast (same as dinner just less dishes) before leaving to take a bullet train to okayama.

The monks in japan kinda have it all figured out. Hyped up tourists pay them a ton of money to provide the most basic accomodation imaginable and then all they do everyday is just tend to their gardens, meditate in dope temples (the insides are super extravagant but youre never allowed to take photos) and turn the veggies theyve grown into amazing, healthy meals for them and their guests to enjoy.Read more