Koysan 21 november 2011 part 2

So, it was our second day in Koyasan. We had to stand up at 5:30 a.m. to participate at the morning ceremony. We put our clothes on, because you are not allowed to attend the morning ceremony wearing yukata, washed our faces and brushed teeth and we heard the monks ringing the bells. We walked through very cold temple corridors to the ceremony hall. There wer 4 monks chanting for 45 min.We were sitting on the bench, but it was also possible to sit on the tatami and some people were sitting and praying. We were not allowed to make a picture of course, so no photo this time. There was an Amiracan couple with small child, but he behave really good, was really quiet! We met them later that day at the Garan, After the morning ceremony we were taken to the same room where we had dinner, because the breakfast was being served at 7 a.m. Again, it was a vegetarian meal and really tasty and we loved it! It contained of rice, nori (seaweed), miso soep and tofu, which my husband usually doesn't like much but this time he really liked it!

After breakfast we checked out and left our heavy bags at the reception, which was basically a large tatami room  with a big table .
We took a bus to the Kongobuji temple.
Kongobuji was originally constructed in 1593 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to commemorate the death of his mother. Later it was merged with a neighboring temple and reorganized into the head temple of Shingon Buddhism, the sect introduced to Japan by Kobo Daishi in 805 and headquartered on Koyasan. 

Inside the temple there a few tatami rooms with beautiffully painted sliding doors, but unfortunatelly no photography allowed.After viewing them, we walked through a long corridor for tea service, I had a coupon, so we got it free. Nice hot of green tea with japanese ricecake,

 Walking further we viewed the Banryutei Rock Garden, the largest rock garden in Japan. Built in 1984, its large rocks from Shikoku, the birthplace of Kobo Daishi, represent a pair of dragons emerging from a sea of clouds. 

Returning back to the main buiding we viewed the famous Kongobuji kitchen

Then we walked to the Koyasan's main temple complex-Dai Garan. On our way we enjoyed some stunning fall colours.

 Konpon Daito Pagoda is a 45 meter tall, two tiered, tahoto style pagoda. A statue of the Dainichi Nyorai (Cosmic Buddha, also known as Variocana), the central Buddha in Shingon Buddhism, stands in the middle of the pagoda's interior and is surrounded by statues and paintings on pillars, which together make up a rare three dimensional mandala (a metaphysical map of the cosmos). Mandala are usually two dimensional paintings. 

The funny monk figure appear everywhere in Koyasan, it marks the preparation to celebrate the 1200th anniversary.
It was freezing that day, it even started to snow a little, but later on sun began to shine.

After visiting Gran, we walked around for a little while.

Koyasan, November the 20th, 2011

So, here we are again. We arrived at Koyasan, after short ride up the mountain, we took a bus to our destination. We were staying at the Shojoshin-in temple, which is located next to the entrance to Okunoin, the enormous graveyard.We arrived there around 3 p.m. The monk who welcomed us could speak English, we checked in and paid for our stay and the monk escorted us to our room, which was really spacious.They even prepared towels for us.

The corridor, which was rather cold.

It was chilly in the temple, but our room had a heater.

After we accomodate a little, we decided to go out to explore the temple and the nearby. We were asked to be back on time for dinner which was being served at 17;30.

The main entrance

We went to Okunoin

 Okunoin entrance, which was next to our temple

The orange staff was mikan-fruit used as offer for the grave, not to eat.

Wherever you look, monks and temples are everywhere, lots of them offers overnight stay

Even public restroom looks stylish

After walk, we went back to the temple. We were picked up by the monk and he brought us to a big tatami room where dinner were served. We were separeted from our guest to offer some intimacy..

Dinner was shojin ryori- vegetarian meal eaten by buddhist monks, it was excellent

It was preety hard to sit on our knees the whole time.

After dinner we finally could take a long awaited bath. We out on our yukatas( japanese bathrobe) and went to the bathroom.The bathrooms and restrooms were shared, but I was all by myself in the bathroom, so I had the whole bath to myself. The bathroom were open only to 9.pm.I took a shower first and then took a hot bath.

After bath, we had some japanese tea in our room, and then went to bed early, because we had to get up early the next morning as we were being asked to participate in morning ceremony.