Six trains and a cable car

Checking out of our (small) Ise hotel rooms, we headed to the train station for our first of many train rides.

Our destination was Mt Koya, known as Koyasan. Koyasan is the mountaintop center of Esoteric Shingon Buddhism. Kobo Daishi was looking for a place to build his temple. After a while searching he threw his staff in the air out of frustration, and it never came down. Five years later he came up to Mt Koya and explained his quest to a man. The man said this was a good, holy place, because five years ago a staff fell out of the sky. So Kobo Daishi built his temple on the mountain. Now there are many, many temples.

1) Ise to Ise Nakagawa

Ise trainyard

2) Ise Nakagawa to Jabari

3) Nabari to Sakurai

4) Sakurai to Takada

5) Takada to Hashimoto

This guy greeted us outside the station 

6) Hashimoto to Gokurakubashi

7) Cable car from Gokurakubashi to Koyasan

Decorations in the station 

Most of the rides were actually rather short, so we arrived at the top of Mount Koya in the early afternoon, giving us time to settle in and go for a walk before dinner.

Koyasan