lariyasui   Lari's Travels

I belong to a group of ladies who learn spiritual practices from Makiko, who comes to Hawaii from Tokyo yearly to teach us. Last year, we decided to go on a journey to Koyasan in Japan with Makiko, who offered to share some highly spiritual places in that area, which is southeast of Osaka. 6 of us from Hawaii met Makiko in Osaka and embarked on our journey to Koyasan, Tenkawa and Kumano in Nara-prefecture and Wakayama-prefecture on the Kii Peninsula of Japan. Linda Uehara, Mary Ann Kobayashi, Cynthia Chi-Coi, Laurie Ide, Gloria Uyehara & me w/Makiko took a train from Osaka to Koyasan, where we stayed at Fukuchiin, a temple ryokan. We slept on futons on the tatami floor and ate vegetarian (monk) food. We experienced going to an early morning (6 am) Buddhist monk service, and observed the sunrise in the zen garden immediately after. Koyasan is the center of Shingon Buddhism founded by Kobo Daishi aka Kukai. We participated in the annual Keshien Kanko ceremony which was very special. We walked through Okunoin, the largest cemetery in Japan with over 200,000 graves, some very ancient & covered with moss.

When we left Koyasan, Makiko hired a driver-guide, Kenji, who also studies spiritual practices and who knew of special spiritual locations which were new to Makiko. Kenji shared with us several spiritual places in the area of Koyasan, Tenkawa and Kumano. He drove us to Tenkawa & Kumano where we visited temples, shrines and more and stayed in ryokans. The reason why this is Japan’s spiritual heartland, a sacred place where the gods of Shintoism and Buddhism reside, is because the Kii Peninsula sits on a huge rock very deep (6,000 miles) beneath our earth, creating a strong magnetic field and thus a strong energy field. The mountains in the Kii peninsula are covered in dense forests with 3 pilgrimage routes from one mountain to another.

After our last ryokan in Kumano, the rest of the group took the train back to Osaka, but Gloria and I embarked on our own journey along the shoreline of Kii Peninsula. First, we stopped in Kushimoto, a small village at the very southern tip of the Kii Peninsula. There, I lost my iPhone but recovered it at the police station where it was turned in, with the help of the station master, Mr. Miwa. The next day, we took the train to another small seaside village, Shirahama. At our small, old-fashioned ryokan, no one could speak English. But we managed to get around the village by bus, to see all the amazing sites there.

Then we took a longer train ride back to Osaka, and changed trains to Kyoto, where we stayed for 4 nights in a ryokan with hot springs right near the train station! Typhoon Hagibis was scheduled to hit Japan while we were in Kyoto, but luckily, it did not affect us there. We stayed in Kobe our last 2 nights, visiting the Earthquake Museum and Chinatown, as well as the shopping arcades… so many of them, seemingly unending!

Menbakaichidai, Fire Ramen in Kyoto!

Lari’s Top Ten:

10. Onsens daisuki!

9. Kushimoto village, where my lost phone was found at the police station

8. Zero energy grassy spot where we lay down on the grass

7. Shirahama seaside village

6. Spending quality time with 6 sisters, in hotel room, on train, etc.

5. Kenji and Makiko guiding us to special spiritual places

4. Walking the ancient path of the Okunoin cemetery

3. Nachi Waterfall Shrine

2. My strong emotional reactions to high energies which touched my heart

1. Learning about the Shingon Buddhist sect founded by Kobo Daishi aka Kukai

By the way: I went to a friend’s memorial service and noted that the Buddhist service was very different from the usual Hongwanji type of service. Then I found out that it was from a Shingon Temple here in Honolulu. I spoke to the bonsan and told him that I was recently in Koyasan, and he said he was born and raised there.

Gloria’s Top Ten:

1.We walked partially on an old trail that ascetic monks walk for over 100 miles from one mountain to another and experienced spiritual connections while we were there. They were curious about us as we were about them.

2.Sorakuen garden in Kobe was very beautiful with lovely flowers, the chysanthimums were as tall as we, trickling streams, the color of the leaves were unique to the garden.

3.Fushimi Inari shrine with 1000 red torii in Kyoto

4.Arashiyama bamboo forest in Kyoto

5.Nachi waterfall shrine

6.the peaceful zen garden at Fukuchiin temple in Koyasan

7.Okunoin the huge cemetery with over 200,000 graves

8.Kumano Hongu Taisha shrine where the tree waved to us

9.We stopped at a rock and sweet spring water where Aukai stopped on his journey, and next to it is a small building where we walked up the narrow ladder upstairs to where the monks pray

10.Shirahama, where we saw Engetsu Island with a hole and did beach combing.

Makiko’s Top Ten:

1. Tenkawa Daibenzaiten Tensha (where we happened to be at the ceremony)

2. Kechien Kanjo (ceremony at Koyasan, Kongo-buji temple)

3. Kawayu Onsen (the night of Oct.5th, the water of the hot spring was extraordinary!! My skin became so fresh like a 20-something girl!)

4. The grassy place near Tenkawa Daibenzaiten Tensha

5. Greeting Kobodaishi at inside of the Okunoin (maosuleum)

6. Eating soft cream ice (you were eating shaved ice) near Kumano Hongu Taisha.

7. The first restaurant we went for a lunch in Koyasan

http://www.gomatohu.com/kadohamagomatofu.html

8. Waterfall in Kumano

9. The mountain top at Kumano, near the waterfall

10. That I could share a room with everybody♥️

 

Laurie’s Top Ten:

1. Kumano tunnel 

2. Toto toilets

3. Kukai Mausoleum – ceremony blindfolded

4. Kukai Mausoleum – when you and Gloria felt his love

5. Kukai back of Mausoleum – at shrine where you and Gloria felt his love again

6. Kumano Hongo Shrine – where the trees waved to us

7. Onsens – mainly the last one at the Midoriya Hotel, the sulfur turned all my of Tiffany bracelets black LOL

8. Awesome vegetarian monk food

9. Roykan hard floor futons – hard and painful but happy to have experienced it

10. Zero gravity grass area – lying on the grass like happy children

 

Cynthia’s Top Ten

1.  Makiko and Kenji-san’s earnest collaboration which resulted in an extra special journey for everyone. 

2.  Walking the same paths, visiting the same centuries-old structures/forests,  witnessing or participating in the same services as generations of pilgrims before us. 

3.  Visiting sacred Okunoin cemetery and the mausoleum of Kobo Daishi; experiencing his energetic presence.

4.  The synchronicities which led us to special experiences—notably visiting former living quarters of Kobo Daishi and purchasing rare and powerful “protection poster.”

5.  Witnessing our varied, sometimes profound,  emotional and physical reactions to places, situations, or energies—notably Lari, after she had kneeled and bowed before all of the altars in the Okunoin temple. 

6.  Participating in Scarnionne/group energy work to divert Super Typhoon Hagibis away from Japan. 

7.  Shojin ryori at Kadohama Goma Tofu Restaurant and Fujuchiin. 

8.  Enjoying the high quality of service, products, work ethic and artisanal skills of people and businesses in Japan.  

9.   Onsens. 

10.  Opportunity to experience and compare vibes of monastic Koya-san, countrysides, and Osaka.