First of all, there are new pictures!
So, my first three nights in Japan, I stayed in some odd accomodations. The room smelled. They made me sleep on the floor. All the food was vegetarian, and most of it was cold. I had to take my bath between 5pm and 9pm, and I sometimes had to share the tub with some other dudes. They locked the doors at 10pm, and I was expected to be dressed and downstairs by 6am.
And I paid $100 a night for the privelege.
It was totally worth it.
See, I spent my first 3 nights in a shukubo, high atop Koya-san, a sacred mountain in Wakayama prefecture. Shukubo are special temple lodgings, run by Buddhist monks. They are structured similarly to a traditional Japanese inn, but they only serve shojin ryori (a special vegetarian cuisine for Japanese Buddhist monks) and the monks invite you to join them for prayers and meditation early in the morning. I slept on the floor in a sweet-smelling fresh tatami room. I had delicious food, and enjoyed a Japanese-style bath (you essentially shower then get into a near-boiling pool of water to soak for a while). During the day, I wandered around the sacred mountain, which is filled with 1200-year-old temples, as well as the most awesome graveyard ever. Plus, being at an elevation of 800 meters, I got to avoid the constant sweat-bath that you experience in Japan’s major cities during the summer. Down on the plains of Japan, the humidity is typically over 90%, and the daytime temps in the 90′s (around 30C). Up on the mountain, the temps were 5 degrees lower, and humidity nearly halved. It was great.
Oku-no-in
That graveyard, right. Oku-no-in is where the ancient Buddhist scholar, Kobo Daishi was buried in the early 9th century. Er, rather, where he has been meditating since then. Kobo Daishi brough the Shingon Pure Land school of Buddhism to Japan from China. His followers believe that he went into meditation here, and is still here. One day, he’ll wake up, and be the only person able to interpret the words of the Future Buddha. So, anybody who’s anybody in Japanese Buddhism is buried here, essentially having a front row seat to this future event. There are Tokugawas, Toyotomis, Basho, and more. And believe me, with 1200 year-old, moss-covered headstones, small shrines, Buddhist statuary, a bit of mist and some really BIG frickin’ trees, this places gets creepy after dark. Like, Japanese-horror-movie-where-little-girls-in-white-dresses-eat-your-innards-while-you-scream type creepy.
Next stop was high up in some other mountains. The “Japan Alps” in Nagano Prefecture are some of my favorite mountains in the world. So I went hiking there for a day, despite the rain. There were some good sights, and gorgeous waterfalls. Check the photos. There were also onsen. Onsen are one of the best things in Japan. They are natural hot spring baths. They help with the skin, and leave you smelling like rotten eggs. And the hot water feels soooooo good.
After 2 days up in Nagano, I’ve now made it to Tokyo. I have seen many of the things that I love about Japan, and have had a relaxing time. I’m actually pretty impressed with the amount of Japanese I remember too! Now I plunge into the tumult that is monstrous urban Tokyo. This is a great town. I also start my sort of post-trip “victory lap”. From here on in, I’ll no longer be seeing much of anything new, but will instead be visiting heaps of friends — many of whom I haven’t seen in a while. It should be loads of fun!
