Quote:
Originally Posted by samokan
I was actually in wakayama last year ( early spring), my friends and I went strawberry picking there. I wanted to go the the mountain area, but it was really raining all day we decided against it cause it might be so cold  so we just went around the city looking for the best ramen house, before heading back to Osaka..
besides koya-san, I want to stay in the temple and join the monks in their early morning prayer, that would be interesting, then maybe visit shirahama after ..
yeah i sure will blog about it ..  and of course pictures..  |
Cool! I can give you a lot of info on all parts of Wakayama-ken (though it's 10 years old, not much changes in inaka...). When I was there, there was a JET ALT who actually lived on top of Koya-san and taught at the schools there. He was given an entire house, rent free (the sweetest deal in the ken!), but he was somewhat isolated up there, and the cable car stopped running at about 8 or 9 PM, long before most other trains stopped, and early enough that he had to have a place to stay off the mountain if he wanted to stay very long at parties and get-togethers. Since Hashimoto was the "gateway to Koya-san", he usually stayed at one of our apartments on those nights (there were 3 of us ALTs in 1 apartment complex about 3 blocks from the train station). And several times when we went up to Koya-san, we stayed at his place. (We once crammed 15 people into his 2 6-tatami rooms!) You may want to try and contact the current ALT on Koya-san to help you arrange your stay, show you around, etc.
Here are some pictures from my trips to Koya-san:
The 1st picture is looking back down the mountain after getting off the cable car (which is run by JR and included in the price of the train ticket)
The 2nd shot is the bridge at the entrance to the cemetery.
The 3rd is from the O-bon festival, when the whole cemetery is lit with candles and torches, and a massive burning bundle of bamboo is carried through the cemetery. (If you can make it there for O-bon, it's quite a sight to see!)
The 4th is a series of statues in the cemetery.
More shots of the cemetery, showing the beautiful old statues, toriis, and stonework set against the natural forest. We walked it early in the morning, when the mist was just burning off and the sun rising, probably the best time to go!
More shots from the cemetery (and this is only a fraction of the many shots I took!), notice the more modern headstones including the astronaut's tomb with a rocket on top, and the temple we stayed at overnight is on the lower right. At lower left, you can see the Buddhist monk serving our meal (which was entirely vegetarian, and exactly the same meal the monks eat).
Since you mentioned Shirahama as well, this set of pictures is from my trip there. Shirahama is famous for its white sand beach and the arch rock just offshore. We actually slept on the beach overnight (It was a warm summer night)!
Let me know if you want to see more pictures or get more info on places in Wakayama! Other interesting places to visit are Nachi Falls (the tallest waterfall in all of Japan) and Taiji, a whaling village that has a whaling museum , etc.