Feb. 17: Mt. Koyasan Area, Umeda, and Namba

We awoke early the next morning in order to attend the chanting ceremony of the monks.  Rushing to wash our faces in the freezing morning, we stopped short when we reached the outer corridors and found snow on the ground.  The temperature had dropped overnight to below freezing, so we were all grateful that we had packed our long underwear and scarves.

The monks chanted in a small, dimly lit room with crimson walls; tall, ornate lanterns; and huge figures of Buddhist saints painted on the walls.  We sat on the floor in front of the raised dais where the monks sat, breathing in the heavy incense in the air and shivering a bit from the cold.  The ceremony was amazing -- the monks chanted for about 45 minutes without stop, and most of them did not have any books or references beyond their own memory.  At one point in the chanting, the one native Japanese man watching the ceremony knelt before the pot of incense burning in front of the dais, bowed, added a pinch of incense to the pot, and bowed again.  He then motioned for one of our students to follow his lead.  Proudly we watched as our Wilcox student followed his lead, and eventually almost every student participated in the ceremony.

Upon leaving the ceremonial room, we were greeted with one of the most beautiful sights on the trip: a courtyard where the trees, sand patterns, rock sculptures, and rooftops were covered with snow.  The sun had risen while we were in the ceremonial room, so the new light reflected brightly off of the flakes of white falling softly from the sky.

We ate a quick breakfast again on two rows of trays in the eating hall, packed our bags, and said good-bye to our gracious host.  Then we were off to explore the town on top of Koyasan.  Our first stop was a square with several old wooden Japanese temples.  Our students splashed the cold temple water on their fingers in a ritual cleansing -- water so cold that it hung in icicles on the cup utensils.

Then we visited the largest temple, a huge orange structure.  A television camera met us at this temple, taping our rounds of the sites and occasionally asking our students to say a few words in Japanese, which they accomplished admirably well.  We entered the huge orange temple, looked around at the large statues of Buddha, and then rubbed spices on our hands as we left.

Our next stop was a tour of the cemetery at Koya, the largest in Japan with an estimated 200,000-500,000 graves.  This is a sacred site because it is nearby the cave where Kobo Daishi is said to be still sitting in a cave in meditation, praying for the world.  We spent a long time meandering through these graves, seeing such dignitaries as Toyotomi Hideoshi and Oda Nobunaga, two major figures in the civil war period before the Tokugawa shogunate.

We saw a well about which our tour guide said, "If you look in this well and do not see your face, you will die within three years;" luckily we could all see our faces.

We also saw a wishing-box: a large, sturdy wooden box with a hole big enough for one arm to enter.  In the box was a higher platform, a lower platform, and a large rock; if you could lift the rock with one hand from the lower platform to the higher one, your wish would come true (one of our young ladies was able to lift the rock, much to the chagrin of the rest of the group who was not able to lift it).

Finally we reached the shrine at the gates of the pathway leading to the cave in which Kobo Daishi sits.  We stopped for a few moments in contemplation, then started back the long walk to the cemetery entrance.  As we were walking back, snow began falling again, drifting onto our jackets and hair.

Coming out of the cold snow and long walk of the cemetery, we found a nearby ramen noodle shop, a real godsend out of the damp cold.  These noodles were probably the best we had ever tasted right after walking through the icy cemetery paths.  After warming up for a bit, we again hopped on a series of trains that took us back to Osaka.

After a little time settling down in our beautiful, clean youth hostel rooms, we again headed out for Umeda.  The main attraction at Umeda was a giant shopping mall with a huge red Ferris wheel at the top of the building.

Some of us spent some time quietly taking in the sights of busy, crowded, neon Umeda from this great height.



Others immediately began shopping in the six stories of stores.  A third group headed out towards the huge Pokemon store nearby.  When we met again a couple of hours later, everyone was happy, especially the Pokemon group, who arrived carrying huge bags of Pokemon plush toys.

Then we were off to Namba, another part of Osaka crowded with neon letters and brightly lit signs.

Although we were given free time to choose our dinner, most of us followed Will and Hurley Sensei to eat okonomiyaki, a kind of Japanese pizza made of a fried noodle pattie with delicious toppings on a hot plate.

Happy and full, we returned to the hostel and went to sleep.

Feb. 16: To Mt. Koya-san

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.