Feb. 21
Knowing that we wanted to go to the service at the temple in the Okunoin, we were on our way by 5:30 to be there at 6. The morning was slightly rainy with fog. It made for a great background as we walked to the temple.
It was so quiet early in the morning.
We weren’t sure what to expect, but it was almost surreal, In a dimmed room, there were 7 monks chanting for almost 40 minutes. Some of the chanting was done in harmony. Unlike the first temple that we had stayed at, we were seated on the floor like the monks. They didn’t move their legs at all while Don and I definitely had to stretch. There was also the burning of incense ritual. Only several people attended the service. Don and I were the only non-Japaneses. After the service we paused at a couple more of the memorials.
Some of the memorials had descriptions
Some were very old
Some were very modern. The remains of a Japanese astronaut is located here.
We weren’t sure what this represented.
Some of the trees were numbered. This is so they can keep track of them and use the seeds to plant more trees.
We headed back to the guest house where we had breakfast and packed up our backpacks. Then it was back to the Okunion to wait for the processional happening at 9. Right at 9 the gong sounded 9 times and then the monks appeared.
The procession begins. Having the rain fall was a bonus. The contrast of the red umbrellas made for quite the photograph.
They continued on past the bridge where photographs are not allowed.
We followed them into the temple where more chanting was done. Around the back of the temple people were burning candles and more incense. There were also a lot of sutras being said. Some people were reading them while others had them memorized. We are always amazed at how being at the right place at the right time brings us so many experiences. The visit to Koyasan was a great way to start our pilgrimage on Shikoku.
We headed back to the guest house to grab our backpacks and make our way to the bus that would take us to the cable car. Roychi, the owner picked up a staff that is often used by people on the pilgrimage route. It had been left by a couple that did the Shikoku route last year. They left it with a note saying that the staff had been around the route once and perhaps someone might want to take it again. Don decided to go ahead and take it. Hopefully it will accompany us the whole way.
We headed into town to grab a sandwich and then thought we might have a walk to get to the bus pick up location. Then we saw a sign that had the bus schedule on it. There would be a bus arriving in 5 minutes. Sure enough it was on time and taking us to the cable car, that was also on time. Everything is so coordinated here. Since we were going to a new town, we weren’t able to get on the limited express train. We were on more of a commuter train that had many stops. Lots of school age pupils were taking the train. All the uniforms were different depending on their ages.
We got to Wakayama late afternoon and made our way to the Dormy Hotel. It is an onsen hotel which means it has both an indoor and outdoor bath. Males and Females are separated and no clothing is allowed. First you wash with soap vigorously and rinse well. After that you can soak in the hot pools. I can see why these onsens are so popular.
This is my kind of place, after the bath one had access to as many ice cream bars you wanted
No limit on how much you can eat! It was all free!
We thought that we were going to eat at the hotel, but when we went to the restaurant, it was closed. So option two was taking a walk down the street and see what was open. The streets were well lit!
It was great having the rain pick up the reflection.
As we were walking we saw a very small restaurant that was called a dipping restaurant. That caught our attention so in we went. The waitress brought us a menu that was mostly in English and pointed out the ones she recommended.All the food was covered with a batter and then deep fried.
It was great fun trying the different items. The kitchen was right in front of us and the cook enjoyed us liking the food. We gave them a thumbs up when we left which brought a lot of smiles.
Back to the hotel where we took advantage of the full body massage chairs followed by more ice cream.
Great way to end the day.
Tomorrow we are catching the ferry to Tokushima and day after that we will start the 88 Pilgrimage walk. Hard to believe that our walk is becoming a reality.