Second Day of Enlightenment

Keeping with the whole Buddhist thing, Casey and I set off for Koyansan today. Burial site of the Buddhist priest Kukai, and home to Shingon esoteric Buddhism, the mountain town revolves solely around its religious heritage. Arriving by train, and finally by cable-car, we made our way to the massive cemetery at the end of town. The top picture here was taken along the 2 km (1.25 mile) path that winds its way through the 200,000 tombs in this graveyard in the forest. The picture below shows a few of the tombs where children are burried. Here pilgrims place hand sewn bibs and sweaters on the small statues as a sign of respect. The long path eventually ends at Okunoin temple, the site where Kukai rests. It is said he is not dead, rather sitting in a deep state of meditation awaiting the next Buddha Maitreya (that's a neat trick). The scenery here was amazing, and though my knowledge of Buddhism barely scratches the surface it was easy to appreciate the drop-dead gorgeousness of Koyasan. There really was something unreal about this place. After walking back into town, we decided that we didn't need to see anymore of the 100 temples (pretty good for a town of 7,000), and opted to visit the Kongobuji monastery. The monastery is still used today, and we walked in while a few young monks were in the middle of class. They more or less ignored us, and I assume they've probably gotten used to the constant influx of paying visitors. This last picture shows the rock garden within the monastery grounds where the head priest resides.