The trip I'd been waiting for: Koyasan

Ever since I visited Japan with my family in 2009, I've been wanting to go back to one place, Koyasan.

Koyasan is a little town in the mountains of the Wakayama prefecture. It's about two hours away from where I live. It is the birthplace of Shingon Buddhism so there are many temples, but the thing I was most eager to revisit was the beautiful graveyard. In my opinion, it is the most beautiful place on earth. It looks so myserious and the nature, covering the old tombstones is so breathtaking, I can't even describe it. I don't know what took me so long to get there, but I finally went again a few weeks before leaving Japan. 

I was planning on going by myself, mainly because it's a place that's really close to my heart and I figured it would be a nice place for me to go and think a little bit. But when I told one of my closest friends this, he said he really wanted to go as well and he didn't want to go in group either. So in the end, the two of us went together and I'm so happy we did. It was a wonderful day.

We visited many temples and pagoda such as the Konpon Daitō (根本大塔) and the Kongōbu-ji (金剛峯寺). I really liked seeing these, as I hadn't went to see them the last time I was in Koyasan.

As I said before, I was most excited about revisiting the graveyard I adore so much. The graveyard (the biggest in the world) surrounds the mausoleum of Kūkai (空海), also known posthumously as Kōbō-Daishi (弘法大師), the founder of the true word Buddhism school. I remember, during the night tour of the graveyard I experienced all those years ago, being really impressed by Kūkai's story, and even now, seeing the mysterious gates to the place where, legend says, he is still meditating, was amazing to me. The place feels so sacred there, that I couldn't bring myself to take any photographs, but picture it like this: you are looking at a rich, green, overgrown forest. A little path leads into it, the greenery blocking you from what's behind. Incense burns and next to you a man sings strings of prayers.

We wandered around the cemetary for a long time. I was so happy! If you've seen some of Hayao Miyazaki's movies like My Neighbour Totoro or Princess Mononoke, that's what being in this graveyard feels like. It feels like magic.

I'm so happy I got to go to Koyasan again and I highly reccomend people to go see it if they can! I believe it is the prettiest place in Japan.

K, that is all!

XXX