South of Osaka lies Koyasan in the mountains. It’s the center of Shingon Buddhism and there’s a temple on every corner, literally. Our lodging for the night was Fukuchiin temple.

The journey there was via train, a very steep cable car / funicular, and then bus (the road into town does not allow pedestrians). We finally arrived and… it’s freezing! We had time for a temple visit to Kongobuji before dinner with its large rock garden.

We wrapped ourselves up in the supplied yukatas and robes but I had to dip in the onsen for 5 minutes before dinner to get some heat back in my body. They served us a traditional vegetarian Buddhist meal (although I can imagine it was slightly fancier than what a typical Buddhist dinner is).

After dinner, it was straight into the onsen hot springs again. Love, love, love the hot springs in Japan. Just make sure you’re not tattooed. They’re very strict about tattoos and almost all onsen prohibit people with tattoos from entering. Tattoos are still associated with the yakuza, gangs and crime, and Japan still lawfully discriminates against them.

Sleep did not come to us as we lay on our futons. The temple was not particularly well insulated. Although our air conditioner was working as hard as it could to raise the temperature, there was a temperature gradient from what felt like 10 degrees on the floor to 30 degrees up by the ceiling.