The following day I went to another mountain, Koya. There was a special ticket offer which included a train, cable car and bus ticket, but unfortunately the ticket office was closed and I had to get all the tickets seperately :( The trip by train took longer than expected, for some reason I had to change trains three times… Also, at some point the train stopped and everybody got out for a smoke break…
Slowly the area became more rural and we were driving through forests. A while later I arrived at the last train station, and took the cable car up the mountain. Mount Koya is the center of Shingon Buddhism, a Buddhist sect which was introduced to Japan in 805 by Kobo Daishi. I went to the Okunoin Temple, which is surrounded by Japan’s largest graveyard. It was pretty huge, but unfortunately also pretty hot. I’m sure that the atmosphere would have been pretty… mystical in a different season but now it was just way too hot. Fortunately, a part of the graveyard and the temple were in the forest, so it was cooler there.
I wasn’t allowed to take a picture of the shrine in which Kobo Daishi, the founder of this sect, was enshrined. But it wasn’t that wonderful anyway XD After I visited Okunoin, I went to wander around the town, which had lots of temples and shrines. All of them were very beautiful, but often I had no idea wether I was allowed to enter them or not.
I went back to Osaka then, and I went to shop in Shinsaibashi. On the way back to my hotel, I took the wrong train… Which was the first time XD At some point the conductor was saying something like “blahblahblah Shin-imamiya, Tennoji”. Tennoji was where I had to get off, and I had no idea if they were saying “For Tennoji, change trains here,” or “This train will stop at Tennoji,” so I ended up in the wrong direction, and got off the train at the next station.
I switched trains then, and just to be 100% sure I did take the right train then, I asked a man who confirmed it was the correct one. Then, when I was standing in the train, he stood next to me and told me everytime “it’s five stations from here,” “four more,” which was very kind but very obvious XD I was happy when the guy got off the train at the next stop, but then another man took over, continuing to count down! He also told me how he travelled to Europe when he was younger XD
