by Sean Lindsay

Created on: February 06, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Two weeks ago I made a journey to one of the holiest Shingon Buddhist sites in the world: Mount Koya (or Koyasan), a virtually hidden mountain retreat about two hours south of Osaka, Japan by train (be sure to see my photos). The trek itself, was an incredible experience I will not soon forget. One of the strangest sensations one can experience on a train is that of going from the wild and frenetic pace of a bustling port city, to the quiet solitude of soaring green mountains, still relatively untouched by urbanization.

Over the course of the next two hours, I would watch as buildings and houses faded into the landscape, watching grey slowly turn to green. For added effect, I could not forget my music (yes, still in the stone age with my portable disc player I bought 6 years ago!), a CD entitled "Zen Garden" by Kokin Gumi (highly recommended for those with a taste for Japanese new age music).

About an hour and a half later, it was time to change trains, leaving the 8-car behemoth for a simple 2-car train with a handful on people on board. It was at this point I realized the magnitude of my surroundings. The train proceeded for the next 40 minutes, steadily ascending upward, all the while winding like a snake through the majestic green mountains of Wakayama (the area I was currently travelling through, and home to Koyasan.

Sheer green rock faces towered into the air all around me, cradling the train as it approached its final destination: Gokurakubashi, the end of the line and beginning of the final ascent to the top of Koyasan. It was now time to transfer to a cable car, something I would liken to an inverted 2-car train that ascends at an unnerving 75 degree angle. For the next 5 minutes, it was all uphill, ascending into the sky.

Welcome to Koyasan. A lone bus station greets us as we transfer one more time to a bus that takes us on a brief 10 minute journey on a sharply winding road sandwiched between a mountain on the right, and a sheer drop on the left!

The bus stops at Isshinguchi and we disembark. We now stand facing Rengejo-in, one of many sacred temples that adorn the top of Koyasan. This is where we will stay the night. We are greeted by a friendly young Buddhist monk and several rows of slippers (the age old tradition of trading shoes of slippers before entering a temple). We are surprised that most of them know a little bit of English, a sign of many previous pilgrimages by Westerners before. We "check-in" and head towards the heart of Koyasan, a tiny

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