Koyasan, a mountain about an hour and a half out of central Osaka on the Nankai private line, is the center of Shingon Buddhism in Japan. It’s home to hundreds of temples housing thousands of religious artifacts and a huge graveyard that stretches up the side of the mountain to another temple at the top.

For hundreds of years, the temples have offered lodging for pilgrims seeking shelter. Recently, the temples banded together and formed an association that lets you book lodging in a temple overnight, complete with two meals of shojin ryori the vegetarian cuisine unique to the mountain. They don’t use any meat, fish or even onion but still manage to prepare a dazzling array of delicious food. The signature dish is Goma Tofu, handmade tofu with a rich, sweet flavour and a strong seasame aftertaste. It’s really amazing.

Glebe and I headed up for a night at Tentokuin last Friday. There was a tonne of snow around from the heavy falls on Thursday, and it made for some great photos. Temples in Japan are generally pretty impressive but when they’re covered in snow and there’s noone else about, they’re positively magicial.

Posted in Japan on Tuesday December 27, 2005.

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