The temple I stayed at is called Muryokoin and seems to cater to foreigners. It cost just a hair under 100$ and for that I stayed one night in my own simple room with 2 meals. The dinner meal was Shojin ryori which is vegitarian and doesn't use onions or garlic ever. Tastey light and filling. Breakfast was also simple but had some meat.
The Candle Festival
The reason I went to Koya this weekend was because every year on the 13 of August (during the week of Obon when the spirits of the dead walk the earth again) is the candle festival. This is where 1000's of people light candles and place them along the walk-ways of the cemetary grounds here near the temples. It rained fairly hard early in the afternoon so the turn out I heard wasn't as good as it has been. None the less it was still thick with people. The lights given off by the candles were magical as was the atmosphere of the grounds. The path eventually leads to the main temple where some part of a person's remains can be kept until the buddha of the future returns to the world. I asked and was told about 30,000 people/families have remains kept there (a bone or a lock of hair or some other such) these remains are signified by either a carved stone or a lantern. You can imagine how so many lanterns might look I hope. Of course there were gongs and monks and lots of smells that I found hypnotizing of course.
Here are some pictures of the cemetary grounds the next day.
Coming Home
I came home after morning services at the temple (o-inori). I woke up at 0500 to get ready to attend the service. I didn't sleep well, I kept waking up all night. It wasn't because the bed (futon) wasn't comfortable or because I wasn't tired either. I'm not a superstitious person but I do believe in things beyond the grasp of mortal senses and it would be silly to disregard the amount of life and death that has passed over those grounds. Whatever the reason that morning I woke up still tired. The ceremony itself looked difficult to preform since it is chanted/sung in a deep flowing voice. There are some foreign monks studying at the temple and they gave an explaination of the workings of the ceremony and what we need to be paying attention to.
The drive home was fast and easy taking only just shy of 3 hours to get to my door. I was invited to a BBQ in the afternoon followed by dinner (at a different house) in the evening. It was outstanding! I ate and ate at the BBQ and had pasta for dinner. I also met some little kids durning dinner that were just fantastic. I don't want to sound weepy here but I sometime wonder if I would make a good father. I looked on these kids and I could understand for a brief moment why you would want to invest such a tremendous effort into such a thing. Never having them though I can't say for certain.
I'll wrap this up now, I still have to pack for the trip home. I'll post again when I get back. Cheers to all, thanks for stopping by.
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