kongo-buji, koya-san

i went to koya-san and wakayama city more than a month ago in october, where the weather on the mountain was cold, but still rather manageable. unilke wakayama city, which i blogged about here and was an absolute letdown, koya-san is a really nice place. it’s tranquil despite the many tourists, and i recommend it as a great way to spend a weekend.

we stayed at this temple, jimyo-in:

staying in the temple accommodations is something you should do when visiting koya-san, just for the experience of it. but more on that later…

there were many statues of buddhas outside our temple:

koya-san is a UNESCO world heritage site i believe, and is full of temples. the town there is a linear one; here’s the temple opposite ours:

the first place we visited was kongo-buji, which is the principle temple on koya-san

there were lots of stuff stuck to the eave of the entrance gate:

the main temple building:

side gate:

one of the first things you see after entering the temple is this:

the sign requests visitors not to insert money into the hole in the trunk section, which might seem odd, until you come to japan and discover that people like to throw coins in almost anything (in temples and shrine areas), or leave coins in stuff, like this for example:

the first rock garden we saw in the temple, with some shrubbery:

this temple, like many other temples in japan, have pretty painted sliding doors that we werent meant to take pictures of. but of course i did – i dont see any reason why i shouldnt, so long as i dont use flash as that damages paintings.

then we came to the main rock garden.. i love rock gardens in japan when it’s autumn, cos the leaves make everything so much more beautiful.

we were making fun of the temple being so old and traditional that it has this:

we waved at it of course :)

more of the temple:

back outside, the sky was gorgeous