oh sorry... i thought you were buddah

today i ran away from the big smoke again, up to somewhere i had been looking forward this whole time, a mountain and buddhist monastic complex named Koya-san. the train took about an hour, and i feel asleep after some interesting activities last night - an irish girl in our dorm must have thought in her drunken stupor that my bed was hers and insisted on climbing in with me no matter how hard i insisted it was not where she wanted to be. i dozed off but then awoke to a glint of sunlight in my eyes, as the train rolled between the mountains, covered in pine and cypress, in and out of tunnels and groves, immense cliffs on one side and dense forested groves on the other.

to get to koya san you have to take a cable car. and then, you can catch buses around but i found it much more pleasant to walk, its not very large. i first caught a bus out to the cemetary, which is one of the largest and oldest in japan, with some very famous people burried there. i entered the cemetary with a sense of achievement, i have wanted to go here ever since i started reading about japan.

as i entered, i steered off of the main road and stumbled into a mossy grove. i follow a path marked by speckles of sunlight, like some celestial hansel and gretel have trodden this path before me. a window of light shines through the embracing branches of the pines around me, illuminating a solitary buddah. i laugh, for i feel a mimic, a mirror for this ancient statue; my all knowing, satisfied smirk reflecting his and my mossy coloured coat a poor imitation of his thick and luscious coverings.

as my giggling subsides a silence falls over these ancient grounds. one of those silences that gives you sudden skepticism about the accuracy of your hearing, a silence that engulfs you, like when you let your ears slip under the water in a bath and feel the water fill your ears and block all sounds but those emanating from your own body. the hush of wheels on bitumen, the twitter of busy-making birds, all stopped momentarily. the silence only broken by a solitary monk sweeping the snow from the paths and collecting pine branches.

i return to the same buddah later, to find him dull and lifeless, now in the shaddows of his massive pine neighbours, his moment of life has passed. not passed away however, but to other corners of this amazing place, to illuminate new groves and paths. i could spend years following my celestial hansel and gretel around this place, with each passing hour, passing day, passing season new objects gain life for their moment, then pass back in to the shaddows. their moment of glory going often unnoticed.

i sit for a while, in another grove. my meditation only broken by a shriek, then
ええ。。びくり　した！！ah you surprised me!
i look up from my reading, to the response
i thought you were another buddah...

i giggle again, then see my mossy coat and red knitted hat match perfectly with the other inhabitants of this grove. someone too has come to warm their mossy heads with hand made hats and blankets...

i did not want to leave this place. there are some places on this planet i have just felt like i belong, places that call me in like the sirens and keep me there, in this eternal state of bliss, oblivious to the outside world. but alas, i had only a few hours and koysan and the cemetary was only a small part. throughout the day i ran into another lone-wolf, and english man, around random corners and peeping out of tatami matted temple rooms we continued to bump into eachother, with that awkwardness that can only be likened to those moments in the supermarket when you see someone, and go through the motions, then part and have to keep going past them as you go up and down the isles.

i then strolled the streets, poking into temples and monasteries, raked-stone gardens and frozen ponds. i came home as sun set, my last glimpse of koyasan from the main gates. the fabled spirit guardians protecting the mountain from evil spirits who too want to occupy its mossy peaks.

so now, my last night in osaka before heading off to the end of this main island to hang with a friend from university. ancient japan under my belt perhaps its time to experience some of what modern japan has to offer...especially my first shinkansen ride - the fabled super fast trains!