Japan: Mike stays in a temple

On day five I travelled south for three hours to Koya, a pretty mountain town with over one hundred Buddhist temples. Please look at the picture of a Koya street on the left.

The first thing that I did there was buy some gloves. It was so much colder than Osaka! I had a toque and a fleece but it wasn't enough.

I grabbed a nice vegetarian lunch at a little cafe run by a French and Japanese couple. It was too early to check in to my temple so I did what anyone in my situation would do: head to the cemetery.

Now, I'm a little worried that you think I'm obsessed with cemeteries. I'm not. I went to one in Tokyo because it was part of a walk in my guide book. I went to this one because it's in a beautiful forest, is pleasant to walk in, and is "one of the most sacred places in Japan" according to japan-guide.com.

Hundreds of the statues there wear red bibs. The internet suggests that these are statues of Jizo, the protector of children and travellers. Keep up the good work, Jizo.

Most of the bibs are plain red but this one has little bears playing soccer on it.

Many memorial stones had drink offerings. I saw water, tea, juice boxes and, as you can see if you zoom in, even beer.

At the end of the cemetery path was a nice hall with over 10,000 lanterns in it. There was also a row of statues that the Buddhists splash water on.

It was getting to be late afternoon, so I headed back across town to check in at my lodgings, Hojo-in. In America if you ask for that, you end up at the nearest Howard Johnson inn. Fortunately for me this really was a temple.

Also fortunately for me, I was the only guest staying there that night. Wandering the halls in the slippers they provided with nobody else around was a little off-putting at first, but it beat having to negotiate around a tour bus full of people. I'm still not quite sure where the monks were hanging out.

This picture is of the temple garden. My room is at the far end of the photo, facing the garden.

I didn't much feel like going out and it was pretty chilly, so I spent some time curled up under the blanket that is conveniently part of this desk in my room.

The adjoining section of the room that you see is where the Japanese futon was laid out at night.

The bathing area is communal and I wanted to minimize the chance of running into a band of nude monks so I decided to get clean before dinner.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be the standard hot springs setup that I had gotten practice with at Spa World. I sat on a stool, washed myself down with soap and a detachable shower head, then hopped into the hot tub. Finally I understood why these temples are open air and have paper walls: it's because being cold makes the tub feel sooo nice.

With my body clean, I waited in my room to be called for dinner. I was led to another bedroom which had these three trays of vegan food.

I wish I had uncovered all the pots before taking the photo. The green container with the candle had mushrooms, the brown pot near the tea was rice, and the little white pot on the right was some gooey concoction. It was a delicious meal.

After eating I hung out in my room and went to bed early. The temple gates shut at 8pm so I don't think I could have gone out even if I had wanted to. Plus, I had to be up before 6:30am for the prayer service!

Pictures for Day 5 are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/9FOFvbIIPggSEald2