Koyasan

This place is amazing. I just can't imagine how interesting it must be to actually live here. There are temples everywhere. The whole place is completely magical and so mysterious. I have a bus pass but I thought it was much nicer to just walk from site to site.

First I found the place where I am staying, which is actually also a temple. It is surrounded by fantastic gardens and the inside rooms are filled with historical relics. In the morning I can join the monks in their morning ceremony.

There are pilgrims everywhere plus many obvious non-pilgrim tourists. I was glad I got up at 5 am this morning and caught the early train from Osaka so I could beat the tourist rush. By noon the whole place was crawling with bus loads of people. I enjoyed my quiet walk to the main temple and the mausoleum this morning before the crowds arrived.

It is traditional to visit Koyasan after completing the Shikoku Pilgrimage so you can report the completion to the spirit of Kobo Daishi. I was thrilled to add the final temple stamp and signature of Koyasan to my book at the mausoleum this morning.

There is so much to see here that it would take weeks to see it all. But I hope to do a lot more walking and exploring tomorrow. The walk through the endless cemetery to the mausoleum was really incredible. So many hundreds of monuments to so many generations over many centuries. It was like traveling back in time about 1200 years.

I'm so glad I had enough extra time to come here. It makes the pilgrimage feel complete now.

I may spend a few days in Kyoto before I have to leave Japan. That will always be one of my favorite places on earth.