June 2

06/02/2013 

Woke up about 5:30am and listened to the birds and frogs "rise".    

It wasn't at all chilly for me -- the comforter supplied was great!

Went to the front lobby area to send some email (only place that internet works -- I'm sitting on steps there now typing this blog in!) and then went to the 7:15am temple morning chant.   Pictures were allowed so here are some of them:

After the morning prayers I headed over to the "fire ceremony" (different building one over -- the one with the "rope" I wanted to pull on yesterday!).     At the fire ceremony they will burn sticks with peoples prayers on them in the hopes that those prayers will be granted.    Quite a neat event.

This was such a cool thing to watch that I took some videos, one of which is here:

As the fire burns out we are all asked to circle past it and inhale some of the smoke, then pray to the statue just behind the alter.

I headed back to my room for breakfast, which was laid out and waiting for me:

After breakfast I headed down to the communal bath and took a nice hot soak after cleaning off.

Then it was back to my room to grab my laptop and come down by the entryway to update this blog.

Now that I'm "caught up" I'm headed back to the room to grab my travel napsack and will walk the cemetery path during the daylight to check it out and get what I hope are some amazing photos.

So it was a nice LONG walk and I have lots of photos and a video or two to share.    Basically the entrance (or an entrance) to the cemetary is about a half block from the temple that I am staying at.

As one approaches the entrance there is a water and ladel station with which one is supposed to purify before entering the grounds.   Very ritualized...  Here's a photo:

Once one has washed (left, right, back in left and touch to mouth, discard [polite for spit out] water) its okay to pass through and over the first bridge:

Here is a video of walking over that bridge:

Then its a long walk to the 2nd bridge (there are three), surrounded by tombstones, lanterns (which I saw last night) and gates.    Lots of trickling water and the sounds of frogs and occassional flying squirrels):

Learned last night from our guide that the little robed figures, usually in red, are often used where people have passed away as "guides" for the deceased to help them to the land of the dead.     We were told that one often sees these at sites of traffic accidents where someone passed away, much like flowers are left in the United States.    There were MANY of these scatted throughout the cemetery -- mostly small stone figures with a bit of cloth like a shirt and/or a hat.

Here's a video of some of the "sounds" and sites while walking this road:

And more of the "helpers" to help folks who have passed away cross over:

Last night our guide explained that Kobo Daishi, the founder of Koyasan and head of this particular sect, had gone to meditate many many years ago.   He had entered a building and shut the doors behind him.       Offerings of food and the like are made to him because they trust that he is still alive, meditating, even today.     Before crossing over the third bridge to visit him one must re-purify.    Originally this meant full body bathing in the cold waters of Koyasan, but too many people apparently had issues [water is freezing in winter], so now they have a row of statues with water and ladels that you splash over the statue instead of over you.    Here's folks doing that:

ONce this is done you stop before the bridge, bow, and then cross over and walk the remaining short distance to his building.   No photos allowed past the bridge though...

So I revisited the building, this time during the day, and walked back to town to have lunch.

Spotted this window...

and in paticular spotted:

So for about $10.50 US here's my lunch today:

For some odd reason my "close up" of the miso and the silky tofu didn't come out--- but they were great too!

I left and started walking back to the temple but got magically pulled into the same manju place as yesterday.   Got myself two kinds:

 Back at the Eko-in temple lodge I snapped a shot of the communal meeting room on my way to my room:

Also, before going upstairs I heard the frog croaking and took a photo outside at the first level:

After a nice rest I took a nice hot bath and then read a book until dinner, which arrived around 5:30 pm in my room.    Similar to last night, all wonderful!  

Here are the close-ups of each dish:

After dinner the staff came and took the plates away and set out my futon.   Unfortunately the "neighbors" (a group from germany) was being somewhat loud next door...   I sense a disturbance in the tranquility of this place tonight -- hope I'm wrong.

So as a workaround I grabbed my "Bose-sound-suppressing-headphones" and watched the Dr. Who episode (The Name of The Doctor) that I'd been saving for just such an occasion -- it drowned out the noise for a while.

Had a nice sleep for about 4 hours until I was woken up by the loud folks next door.... awkward!  

Eventually, around 1am, they quieted down and I got more sleep.