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.