Koyasan is an interesting place to visit and stay for a night. High up in mountains, it provides respite from the hustle and bustle of the Japanese cities. It is a major center for Japanese Buddhism, and accordingly, it has numerous Buddhist monasteries and temples. A large number of temples offer accommodations for tourists. These entities are called shukubos.This seems to have become a big business for them, generating significant revenues.
For the tourists, staying in a shukubo provides a uniquely Japanese experience in several ways.
The first experience is room. We all get our private rooms, one for sitting during the day, the other for sleeping. The floors are covered with tatami and there are no chairs or bedframes. In fact there is no bed until night when the monks who service the place come and laydown mattresses. Unlike our Kyoto Airbnb, there is no separate Western system if you are not comfortable using the Japanese one. One has to sit cross-legged or on knees the whole time. It is a bit uncomfortable.
The second experience is who provided the service. Monks do. They are all very courteous, it goes without saying. They all speak some English.
The third Japanese experience is meals. Both dinner and breakfast are served in shukubos In some, the dinner is included in the quoted price, in others it is not. Better read the fine print. We were caught unawares, but when I found out that the one where we had initially reserved wanted to charge extra (some $60 for the two of us) for dinner, I promptly cancelled our reservation and made another one in a shukubo called Kumagaiji. The meals are quite elaborate and totally vegetarian. One of the monks explained to us what each item on our plate was. This was useful because there were at least twenty things in different cups and plates in two different trays---one in memory of our ancestors. Of course, there is no dining table. We sat on tatamis and the food was on a very low table (“patla” for those who speak Gujarati).
We could avail ourselves of the communal baths after dinner. There was one for men, another for women. In them, you strip down, wash yourself, and then sit in a hot water pool. Then you can come out, wash yourself with soap, and go back again. You can repeat until you are tired of doing it. For me it was twenty minutes.
The fourth experience is the prayers. We were asked to participate in two ceremonies, one at 6:30 am, the other at 7:00. The first one was in a large prayer room inside the building, the other in a temple next door. Remembering the ancestors was the focus of the first ceremony. It included chanting by the monks followed by each one of us, in pairs, coming up in front of the audience, bowing down and putting incense in smoldering fire three times. This time there were regular chairs for the guests to sit on and observe.
Two monks conducted the second service. One hit a large gong, while the other lit a fire in front of a statue of Buddha. The gong was loud, the fire, quite fierce. They both chanted in deep voice. We sat on tatamis and observed. This was pure theater but it was fun.
After breakfast, which, like dinner, included many items that were hard to identify. This time, there was no monk to explain what was what. We were asked to check out soon afterwards.
This was not a cheap experience. The accommodation (including meals)
was $250, by far the most expensive of our entire trip. However, we think it was worth it.
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