Hanayamaonsen Wakayama

... and boarded a bus for the short ride into the settlement. People are not allowed to walk along the road and we could see why as the bus snaked its way along the thin winding road. Making our way through the small town to the Ekoin Monastery - our temple lodgings (Shukubo as they are known) – we were greeted by some monks who explained the intricacies of staying in a Buddhist temple. They showed us to our room – a traditional tatami room – and advised us when ...

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091008

"Ryokan on Koyasan"
by swami_worldtraveler


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INTRO:

A traditional Japanese inn on a mountain top in a Buddhist complex, including a vegetarian dinner and breakfast... sounded great to me!

I didn't count on a typhoon, but then nothing is perfect, I guess. But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.

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TO KOYASAN!...

By train --> tram --> bus it was a relatively short two ...

... a una especie de cripta con miles de budas en miniatura alineados en las paredes y al final de todo, otra pequena capilla.
A un lado estaba el mausoleo de Kukai, el monje que construyo el primer templo en Koyasan. Monjes de todo el pais peregrinan a Koyasan para pagar respeto a Kukai.
La chica danesa empezo a enojarme cuando me dijo que tenia que borrar mis fotos, porque no estaban permitidas en el templo. Por supuesto, no le hice caso. Por respeto, solo hice 3 ...

A Buddhist retreat Koya-san, high in the mountains near Osaka, is a famous Buddhist town and retreat. Getting there required taking a subway to a train to another train to a cable car to a bus to the temple where we would be staying overnight. Statues of Buddha greeted visitors on the entrance, and shoes were prohibited inside the temple. The accommodations were traditional Japanese-style ryokan, meaning the ...

... the train back to the Namba area, where all the major malls were located. We had decided earlier that day to spend most of the day indoors... and not exert ourselves too much... seeing as how we'd be catching the bus later that night. We passed the next hour or two in the mall until it started to get dark. There was one more sight we wanted to see... the Floating Garden Observatory. This building was pretty much the tallest in Osaka... and the night time view (according ...

We will be traveling to Sydney via Singapore. There is a four hour stop-over in Singapore and we have heard rumnours that there are free massages and free movies for waiting passengers in the airport. Fantastic!!! Also, when we get to Sydney, we are there for about 8 hours so hopefully we will have a quick tour. We are then flying to Cairns in the north to start our tour of Australia down the east coast. By the way, the Osaka airport is a recently man-made island. It is fantastic!

... quite impressed with how much I fit into my suitcase, as well as with some of the things I bought. I had one huge box that they x-rayed, but at least they didn't tear that one apart. It was really quite amusing and he was really nice about it. I picked up my Japan Rail pass and then went to take a shower and change clothes (there was a great place at the airport train station - about $5 for a 30 minute shower). It was a real lifesaver, because I was a ...

Recovering from a bit of a night on the turps, I slept in until about midday. I'm pretty sure that Shiho and Yoshi woke me up to say farewell on their way to work, but at that stage I was slightly less than coherent... All I had to do was get to Tokyo Station for my 3.30pm train to Osaka, so after I was packed up and ready to go I just watched TV and surfed the net until it was time to go. I'd forgotten how heavy my bloody pack was - the ground remains its ...

Happy New Year everyone! So I hope that all of you had a great night out last night and that the hangovers aren't too bad this morning. Here In Japan New Year's Day is the most important day of the year while Christmas Day is just another excuse for drinking. So to understand how all the new year stuff works over here you really just have to swap the two days over. New Years Day is like our Christmas day and vice versa. Thats not to say you can't blow ...

The next two days were not surprisingly sat on my **** resting my foot as waking up the next morning saw me unable to even move it, let alone walk on it. I crawled, very hungoverly into the kitchen where I was laughed at. So I watched some films, played some cards and watched some films, for two days. That was my pre and christmas eve! Christmas Day, I awoke to find my foot nearly better and able to hobble around on it. Simon was working for an hour today ...