Mystical mountain top.

Well we took a proper day trip away from Osaka into Wakayama where Koyo-san is. Unable to use our JR passes to get here we had to buy our first rail tickets, 3310 yen. Heading out the train was bumpier than the Shinkansen we had grown accustomed to.

We watched the city disappear and the rural towns appear. After a while we started to see mountains and before long we were winding our way along the side of them looking down. When the train finally arrived we had to transfer to a cable car, this was shaped like stairs at a 45 degree angle, pulled up by one thick cable. Lasting about 10 minutes, a shaky stop at the top and we exited onto the bus. The bus then worked along a mountain side road.

Eventually we hit a plateau and safe, carried on the bus to the top. Here we started at Okunoinmae and walked to Torodo(lantern temple) where we gained entry to the hall where they store lit lanterns, each one alight. In the main temple there was a monk chanting and people attending. Even the very old where here.

After this we walked down through the thousands upon thousands of mausoleums, where amongst the massive cedar trees and light shining down through gaps was very mystical. This itself was a sight to behold.

After making out the Sado entrance we hopped a bus down to Senjuin-bashi. Starting at the Reihohan museum area we made our first mistake of the trip when entering a temple. Rather than take our shoes off before entering we were meant to take them off before the stairs.

Making our way round to Koupon Daito, a towering red pagoda standing 40.5m.

After seeing the sights around here we finally heading to the Daimon, the entrance gate to Koyo-san, oops.

Well after spending a lot of the day here we descending and made our way back.

After visiting such a place, especially with the weather you could understand way many people follow such a religion.