Hurley Sensei was right -- the time shift woke us all up early, and by 5:30AM we were pretty much awake, showered, and ready for the day. Some students went to the convenience store right on the corner nearby our hotel, and picked up some food for the day. The great thing about convenience stores is that they all have great foods and interesting drinks, like sweet milk tea in cartons or neatly wrapped balls of rice onigiri. Since everything is cheap and easy to pack, we all bought items for lunch or for snacks during the day.
At five to 6 everyone was impressively assembled, and at 6:00AM we headed towards the train station. The train stations in Japan are clean and comfortable, with the added benefit of heated seats to warm you throughout your trip.
The first leg of our train trip took us from Nagoya station to Osaka station, where we briefly hopped out to drag our heavy bags to the Shin-Osaka Youth Hostel. Depositing our suitcases all in one large room, we came back to the Osaka station and again boarded a train headed for Koya. Leaving Osaka, the buildings started urban but eventually became more and more rural.
Eventually large patches of green farmland appeared, and when we began seeing mountainous forests, we knew we were near Koya.
Following the train to Koya, we had to take a cable car up the mountain to get to the temple community on the top. This cable car was bright red, but sits horizontal along the incline of the mountain. To access the seats, you have to climb stairs within the cable car, and a couple of seats appear to the sides of every few steps.
As the car began the climb up the mountain, we could see forests of beautiful trees with straight parallel trunks and a waterfall meandering through these woods. At the top was a small station where we boarded the Wakayama Tourist Industry bus to take us to our friends at the Mt. Koya High School. We squeezed in, and Mr. Hurley rushed to put on a tie before we got there.
Mt. Koya high school is one large white building with several floors, and contains about 200 high schoolers. Upon arriving we were greeted by the principal and head priest of the school dressed in a traditional priest's kimono, as well as a student delegation in the navy blue school uniform and a gentleman in a suit. They first asked us to remove our shoes and wear plastic house slippers:
then led us to a beautiful main assembly room with tatami mats and a bright red carpet for us to sit on. The welcoming committee gave a few short speeches, then the head priest / headmaster gave a long explanation about Kobo Daishi, the founder, and the history of the school. Then he led us in a session of meditation practice. He asked us to put our legs in a half-lotus position, with one foot on the opposite thigh, and put our hands on top and close our eyes. A few students (and chaperones, I have to admit) felt sleepy as we sat quietly with our eyes closed for half an hour, and all of our legs were aching by the end of the meditation exercise.
Following this opening ceremony, we all went to lunch, then off to some of the classrooms to meet with students. Mt. Koya High School is special because half of its students are studying for priesthood, to work in the Buddhist temple community located at this unique place. The first activity with the Mt. Koya High School students was a presentation of Kobo Daishi's life, how he travelled to China and brought back Esoteric Buddhism to Japan and specifically to Koyasan.
The next activity was calligraphy. Our Wilcox students practiced their kanji with the Mt. Koya students, sitting one Wilcox student and one Mt. Koya student per desk. We even got to take home small cards with our perfected kanji creation on it!
Finally, we played sports with our new friends. Several of our students decided to play basketball, several played volleyball, and one group taught the Koya students how to play Zoomie, a game Hurley Sensei taught us.
At the end of the day, we just sat in a classroom and hung out with our newest friends. We started off folding origami cranes, but eventually began talking about other things. One of the Wilcox students performed magic tricks with cards for the Mt. Koya students -- suteki!
Bidding our new friends goodbye, we piled into the bus. One of the Mt. Koya students had fallen in love with one of our Wilcox students within the space of our one day trip, and shouted her name from outside our bus as we drove away.
At the end of our day and tired from our adventures, we approached Renge Join, the temple at which we were staying. The head priest at the temple was also the principal of Mt. Koya High School, so we were happy to see his familiar face again.
As we sat down to eat dinner, traditional-style on trays in two long rows, the head monk's mother came and explained her experiences living in this Koyasan community. Because she had lived in Koyasan all her 88 years, she had a long and interesting story indeed! She made our delicious vegetarian dinner even more wonderful.
Finally off to bed. Our rooms were traditional Japanese style, with tatami mats on the floor and thin futons to sleep on. The baths were also traditional, which was a bit strange at first because this meant group showers. When we discovered that traditional baths also included an onsen, a big pool of hot water to relax and chat in, everything was just fine. The best part of these rooms were kotatsu, heavy wooden tables with heaters underneath and a comforter coming out the sides. In the coldness of this Mt. Koya temple, we snuggled under the comforter with our friends, warming our legs and feet beneath the kotatsu before going off to bed.
