Osaka is a great city, but I found there wasn’t a huge list of must see’s for the city. So when I ran into two friends who had just come from Osaka and was told Koyasan is a must, I decided it was best to give it a shot.

It takes a 2 hour train ride from Namba station, a cable car up a mountain followed by a city bus into town, so to get there is a bit of an adventure. Trying to figure out how to get there the night before didn’t leave me with a lot of confidence in getting there problem free, but it turned out to be not nearly as complicated as it seemed once I got there. They do sell 2-day passes at Namba station which gives you a round trip train ticket, cable car ticket and bus pass for while you’re there. The only other thing I had to buy was a train reservation for the trip back (~700-ish yen, ~$7). There is also a direct train as well as an indirect train that you change over at a station in between.

Arriving at the station, there was a cable car waiting, I have to recommend getting to the front or bottom, as it gives a great view as you speed up the mountain. After all the robots and bullet trains I’d seen through the week before, the older feel to the cable car and train gave the trip more character and definitely added to the atmosphere of the area.

Straight out of the cable car station is a set of buses. From here you can choose which bus you’d like to take. Koyasan is a straight line stretching from the Daimon Gate to Okunoin-Mae. There is certainly more to it than just that, but the main area’s to see are along this route.

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This site here is a wealth of information on how to get here and what to do once you’re here.

Okunoin Temple

I chose to begin at the Okunoin-mae stop, which starts off at the edge of a Buddhist cemetery at the far eastern end of the city. Off the bus, it’s a 20 min hike along the paths through woods surrounded on either side by graves, tomb stones, towering trees and statues. Cemeteries are rarely an area I consider to visit, but this didn’t feel like one. With the statues and towering trees, it feels more like a shrine, a place of worship, more than just a simple place to pay respects, it almost felt like something you’d see in Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider, with graves overgrown by moss and noticeably weathered.

At the end of the path you come up on the Mausoleum of Kobo Daishi (also known as Okunoin Temple). Kobo Daishi (also known as Kukai) founded Esoteric Buddhism on Koyasan 12 centuries ago. Few things truly make me stop in my tracks and take my breath away, but this was one of them. Unfortunately there were large signs banning photography of the Mausoleum it’s self (which didn’t deter some people) and honestly a picture wouldn’t do it justice, so I though it best to follow this one. Searching Google there aren’t even a huge number of pictures of it either, so if you want to see it, make the trek.

End to End

The hike is roughly 4 km round trip, where it puts you back on the main road. I hiked up the road, stopping to take in the views of the different temples along the road. I’ll have to come back one day and do a temple stay, I was proud of my self to have just made it there for one day on such short notice, so this trip was more of a trial run. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t see some great stuff along the way.

The city was a mix of up scale temples and certainly rustic and traditional looking establishments. Every gap between each temple though had alley ways that led to river ways or even more temples hidden back and away from the crowds on the main road.

Daimon Gate

After stopping for some lunch, and then continuing on, I reached the far end where the road comes to a ‘T’ at the Daimon Gate. The gate caps off the route nicely with the view of mountains off in the distance. I was lucky enough to have come on a clear day and could see as far as the mountains would allow. I also found that this part was just far enough out of the main part of town that there weren’t as many people on this end, even compared to the area on the far east side.

At this point, I had just enough time to make the last direct train back. There was certainly much more I could’ve done, but with this, I’ll have reason to come back one day. Had I had more time, I would’ve done a temple stay and spent more time exploring, but seeing as I’d only decided on going the night before, I was happy with what I’d accomplished for the day.

Knowing I still had a bus, cable car and train ride to finish for that day, and with the looming fact that I had a ferry 600 km away I had to catch the next day, I thought it best to not push my luck any further.

You can find the rest of the pictures from my day in Koyasan over on Flickr.