On March 8th, 2016, I visited temples on Koyasan to take videos of a tree-planting ceremony.
Koyasan has been registered in the UNESCO World Heritage sites on July 7th, 2004.
It is located in Wakayama Prefecture in Japan.
It is said that number of the tombs in Koyasan is the largest in the world,
there are about 400,000 of tombs.
Also the number of the annual visitors are largest in the world as well
which are about more than 2.6 million people.
It took about an hour from the bottom of the mountains to the top (Koyasan) by car.
I had terrible carsickness because the mountain path was very narrow and steep.
I strongly thought that getting to Koyasan can never be easy since a very long time ago.
I’m sure it was very hard for people in olden times to get to the top of mountains as well.
Of course it is very hard to get there because...
Koyasan is located on mountains (elevation of 1000meters)
which are higher than Sky Tree (634meters tall and the tallest TV tower in the world)!
As you may know, there is no mountains officially called “Koyasan”
even “San” means mountain in Japanese.
Koyasan is actually the name of mountains in Wakayama Prefecture to the south of Osaka.
It is a flatland which amid the 8 peaks of mountain
which make Koyasan looks like a lotus plant.
In generally speaking, Koyasan is as known as Koya 3 mountains
which are Tenjiku-San, Yoryu-San and Mani-San.
So when I say “Koyasan” and/or “the top of mountains” I mean the area
where there are many temples on mountains.
On the top of the mountains, there is “a normal town”
which has everything from a bank to a convenience store
likely almost I forgot the I was on the top mountains.
This was my first time to see a bank and a convenience store on such a high area.
Moreover, there are lots of temples, 117 of them!
There are also 52 places for monks and visitors to stay.
This is the town of temples.
Because Koyasan is located at an altitude of 1,000 meters and there are lots of temples,
so it is very soothing and refreshing just to be there.
T.F
