Kansai Rambler's Hike
Mood:  smelly
Sunday brought another great day of hiking to Koyasan.
I met my friends, Yoshie and her daughter, Miki, and Shinobu at the train station at 8 am yesterday. We travelled by train and subway to get to a small train stop in Wakayama prefecture to begin our hike. We picked up more and more Ramblers on the way. Our group was over 50 as usual. We have people from Japan, Australia, US, UK and more. We are hiking in the mountains to about 1,000 meters (a piece of cake after Kili) but, oh, the humidity. Thank goodness for towels and sweat rags to mop off the dripping brow.
Koyasan is the spiritual center of Shingon Esoteric Buddhism, which was established by a priest named Kukai aboutr 1200 years ago. On the summit there are many temples, towers and a huge graveyard thatt leads to Kukai's mausoleam..This is a very touristy area. Incredibly pictureesque. Too bad that we have to keep moving. I really would like to come back here and spend some time leisurely strolling through the grounds. There are monasteries where people can stay and meditate and do other religious practices and enjoy "Shojin-ryori" which is a Buddhist vegetarian cuisine.

More later