This morning my roommate Rebecca, from Germany, and I decided to go to Koyasan for the day. Last night we were really unsure about the tri...

Koyasan

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This morning my roommate Rebecca, from Germany, and I decided to go to Koyasan for the day. Last night we were really unsure about the trip because the forecast said thunderstorms but based on our experience with Japanese weather the forecast is always wrong.


We left Kyoto station for our long journey at 9am. We caught the JR rail to Osaka and transferred to Shin-Imamiya. We were still unsure if we wanted to go because of weather even though it wasn't raining; we decided that if we got to Osaka and it was raining we would turn around but it never rained.

At Shin-Imamiya We purchased our all day $29 pass to Koyasan which included train, bus, and cable car.
Our train was to depart at 10:04 and at 10:02 a train came to the platform by the time we got in it was 10:03 and then it departed!!!! Oh no! We got on the wrong train! Ours in ONE MINUTE LATER! We accidentally got on the express than that would cost us a lot of money so at the next stop we got off.

Thirty seconds after getting off the next train arrived! It is crazy how Japanese public transport work to the exact second! Super impressive.

We took that train for about an hour and stopped at Hashimoto station. There, the train stopped for a couple of minutes, closed the door and started going back to the direction that we came from! Both Rebecca and I started to freak out! In the map it showed that the same line was the one taking us to Koyasan! Once again we got out at the next stop and changed tracks to go to the next station. 
On the train we asked two men from Holland if this was the train and they confirmed that it was.
Once we got back to the station one of the workers told us we had to transfer to the first 4 cars to go to Koyasan... glad we were told this time!

The views from the train were spectacular, we rode in between millions of trees and mountains that were surrounded by fog! At times little town would pop up from between the trees!


We finally made it to Gokurakubashi where we had to transfer to a cable car that would bring us up the street to Koyasan!


Immediately we boarded a bus that took us to the temples; so far so good with the weather, no rain! yay! 

Of course, lots and lots of temple pictures!!







 In one of the temples we saw a monk (maybe?) ring the huge and loud bell!






About 20 mins after we got off the bus it really started pouring! 

We kept looking at the temples and finally decided to go to the farther temple. It was only a 3 minute ride up the hill on the bus but the climate change was unbelievable!
The temple was surrounded by fog which was very strange because it was hot and a little rainy. The fog was more like steam! Super creepy!




We saw the temple in less than 5 minutes and decided to go back towards the station to look at the temples at the other end. It was raining so much and noticed that the bus wouldn't come for a while so we decided to eat in a little restaurant by the bus stop.



We finished our meal and as we were putting our shoes on we saw the bus leave... NOOOO!!! We would have to wait for another hour for it so we decided to walk!

It was really funny because both Rebecca and I started to look at the silver linings of the situation and said things such as "we are sitting on the trains for 6 hours, it's good we are walking" or "It's only water, we will dry up" or "we get to see more of the city" and in a way we did! We got to see a couple more temples and a super cute Buddha with offerings such as french fries and snacks.







The train back thankfully wasn't as confusing as the one on our way there so we did not get on any wrong trains (well. actually we did but we were told to move to the right one.)

To our surprise the JR from Osaka to Kyoto ran late!!! We got it on time but then it stopped for about 25 minutes! It was really raining so that might have had something to do with it but both Rebecca and I were impressed by the Japanese people that did not complain and did not talk about it! If that would have happened in any other country I think we would have heard some swearing or people being annoyed by it... Not in Japan! They barely looked up from their phones!!!

We were only 30 mins late to meet with our friend Rimi for the last supper together. We wanted to try something different and went up a couple of floors at the train station and found the most beautifully lit stair case:


Such a great day but so sad we all parting ways tomorrow!


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About Post Author

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!

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About me




Hi! It's me... Andrea!

In this blog you can live vicariously through my journey around the world!

Please feel free to share tips or places to go!
Contact me: andreaheartstraveling@gmail.com