Japan (2019)
Inhalt/Content
Koya-san – The spiritual center of Japan
San is the Japanese word for mountain. When you think of a Japanese mountain, of course, Fuji immediately comes to mind. So it may surprise one or the other that we didn’t visit Fuji at all. The reason for this is simple: We were advised against it on several sides. The Fuji is apparently overrun by tourists and there isn’t really anything to see there either. Instead, Kevin’s work colleague, who herself lived in Japan for a while, suggested going to Koya-san. Although Koya-san has the San in its name, as it is located on a mountain, it is not a typical mountain for hiking and climbing. Much more, it is a small place with countless Buddhist monasteries and an old cemetery, which has been recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. From Kyoto we first took the train and finally a kind of cable car to the spiritual center of Japan, as Koya-san is often called. We went to one of the numerous monasteries, which was by far our most expensive accommodation in Japan, but also the most interesting. It is common for the local monasteries to run their own ryokans, traditional Japanese inns. Since we still had time until check-in, we left our luggage at the monastery and set out to explore the place. In contrast to the other sights that we had visited in Japan so far, Koya-san was mainly visited by Japanese tour groups. In one of the bigger restaurants we treated ourselves to two bowls with rice and shrimp or with rice and meat with egg and a traditional pickled tofu, which was incredibly soft and had a really interesting taste. Fortunately, we were there on time, because shortly after us the restaurant filled with a large busload of Japanese tourists. This was not surprising when you consider that the restaurant was right next to the said cemetery. This was also our next goal. The cemetery bears the name Okunoin and, as far as its appearance is concerned, would have easily fit into the adventures of Indiana Jones or Lara Croft. The old graves were covered with moss. On and around the cemetery there were old trees with small figurines in their bark and roots. The main path led towards a temple, while the side paths led one deeper into the forest, where new ruins and graves stretched out again. As a result, there was really something to discover everywhere.
Since, as already mentioned, Koya-san is mainly visited by Japanese, we were also able to observe a completely different interesting cultural phenomenon. At first glance, the Japanese tour groups didn’t really differ from any other tour group. A tour guide guided a group of tourists from A to B and kept stopping to explain something. However, there was a slight difference here compared to other tour groups. As soon as the tour guide started to explain something, the tour group reacted with an unbelievable synchronicity in the chorus: “Aaaah” or “Oooh”. This was slightly amusing to our European eyes and ears. In the meantime we had understood this country well enough to be able to label it as “typically Japanese” and to continue walking with a broad grin.
Back at the temple, it was now time for our check-in. A young monk skillfully balanced a tea set on a tray and led us to the back of our room. I almost walked into the room in shoes, we are and will remain foreigners 😉 In the middle of our traditional room there was a small table on which the monk served us green tea before politely saying goodbye. On one side of the room was a beautiful old traditional chest of drawers and a standing mirror. On the other side were our rolled up futons and two yukatas, traditional robes that are worn in traditional households or in ryokans. After we had consumed our tea, however, we were quickly drawn back outside, where we explored the place even further. There were some less surprising things here, such as a large imposing entrance gate, or a kind of tourism center and of course many souvenir shops. What actually surprised us, however, was that we also found the largest Ghibli shop here that we would see on our entire trip to Japan and that after we had already been to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.
In the evening, a very special highlight in the temple was the bath. Of course you didn’t have your own bathroom. Instead, the Ofuro, a traditional Japanese bath, opened for a certain period every evening. It worked like this: First you had to wash yourself thoroughly. To do this, one undressed in a small anteroom before entering the actual bathroom. There was, presumably for us Europeans, a shower on the right-hand side. On the left there were several smaller washing areas with partitions between them. Here you sat down on a stool and first had to wash yourself thoroughly. Only when you were really clean were you allowed to enter the large bathing pool, which was filled with very warm water. Here you could close your eyes and just relax a bit before going back into the anteroom, where you dried off and slipped into your yukata.
To sleep on the thin futons and thus almost directly on the floor lined with expensive tatami mats was admittedly a bit of getting used to for us Europeans. Either way, however, it wasn’t a long night, because our alarm clocks rang particularly early in order to be able to participate in the fire meditation at 6:00 a.m. The young monk from the previous day greeted everyone and led us to the meditation hall, where stools were already set up for us guests. The front part of the meditation hall consisted of three areas. On the left and on the right a monk or a nun took care of a fire in an elaborately decorated fireplace. In the middle, the other monks and nuns sat opposite each other in two rows. Shortly afterwards it started. The monks and nuns began chanting mantras until they appeared to be completely in a trance. Meanwhile the fire crackled left and right. Originally we thought that we would just be silent spectators, but in the middle of it there were some monks standing on top of us and integrated us into the ceremony. They took us past their sanctuaries, where we were supposed to bow down at some, and pour water (or tea?) Into a glass for others. We didn’t expect that, which is why we seemed a bit taken by surprise, but in retrospect it was of course incredibly cool that we could actively participate in the meditation. With these impressions we packed up our things and set off for our next destination.
