Japan 13: Being pulled up a mountain by a rope, to hang out with English speaking monks

I slept as late as I could this morning, and then walked to a nearby train station.  I had to take the train to Osaka, switch to the subway for a short while, and then board a train to Mount Koya.  Luckily, a train conductor woke me up to let me know that it was time to switch trains, as this one did not go all the way, like the read conductor had told me.  15 minutes later, I was on another train, which ended at a cable car.



I thought it would be more like a skyride or ski lift, but no, our huge train car was pulled up for what felt like an eternity, merely by cable.  I took a video for those that have interest.

A short bus ride later and I was at my monk inn.  While it is a Buddhist temple, the workers speak remarkably good English.  I was told about the bath on site, the morning service and a fire ceremony that follows, and about the ability to do meditation once a day.  Dinner would be delivered to my room, along with breakfast.

While being walked to my room, there were two men filming with a video camera.  They stopped me and asked if I was comfortable here.  I explained that I had just arrived two minutes ago.  They stopped shooting.

My room is quite large and overlooks a garden



After relaxing for a little bit, I decided to walk through the town.  I had a little over an hour before dinner, so I decided to walk thirty minutes both ways.  I checked the weather report and it showed rain later in the night.  I had interest in doing the nighttime cemetery tour that is offered by my temple's monks, but decided to put it off til tomorrow night with it looking like it'd rain.



Koyasan is a small town with touristy shops and quite a few temples.  I might check out the temples tomorrow, as there may not be any more on my trip.  One car pulled aside suddenly and I looked up to see a sign for electrical charging.



Everywhere I looked, I saw a small figure, that was also replicated as a statue.

A temple to see tomorrow

Then, as I was turning around, the rain came, hard.  I might need to start carrying my umbrella on me just in case.  I took shelter nearby.  The sun came out while it was raining and I caught a nice view of another temple.  Here are my 3 favorite shots.  You might have to click on them, in order to make them bigger so you could see the details.



I was running out of time for dinner.  I gave up on waiting and decided to run it(alternating with walking) back.  I was soaked, but I made it back just in time.  I hung up all of my clothes, got changed, and I received a call in the room.  They were asking if I was ready for dinner.  I said yes.  Interesting use of technology for monks, I thought.

Dinner was surprisingly good, and although I didn't eat everything, I did eat a lot of it.  While eating, the film crew appeared again, wanting to interview me about the food.  Unfortunately, I had just finished eating everything that I was willing to eat.  They were very intent on me looking like I was still eating, so I ate more rice.  They asked me a few questions and then asked where I was from.  Then, they wanted me to repeat where I was from, for the camera.  I decided to do it in Japanese and completely bungled it up.  I guess I am not meant for tv.