A night in Koyasan, after the cable car

Koyasan is a temple town on a mountain, and the reason to go is the night. Okunoin, the long cemetery under the cedars, is a different place after dark than it is at the end of a day trip that still has to catch the cable car. A shukubo, a temple that takes guests, gives you the early dinner, the quiet, and the morning. A day trip from Osaka can be done. It skips the part that justified the ride.

The train is Nankai, not JR. From Namba in Osaka you ride the Koya line to Gokurakubashi, take the cable car up (about five minutes), then a bus into town. Door to door is about two hours when the connections behave. Some trains are direct. Others want a change. Nankai posts the current fare and time. From Tokyo the journey is already a long day before you have seen a gate. Come up from Osaka or Kyoto, and come in the morning.

The temple runs on a schedule

Book the shukubo. Autumn weekends fill. Check-in is in the afternoon, and dinner is early: often a set vegetarian meal, shojin ryori, in the room or a shared hall. You are not going out to hunt for a bowl of ramen afterward. Ask about the bath and about morning prayers when you reserve. Prayers are often optional and early. The bath may close before a late walk back from the cemetery.

• Leave Namba in the morning. An afternoon start squeezes the town into a rush before dinner.
• The bus from the cable-car station is the normal last step. That road is not a walking route.
• Shoes come off. A small bag is kinder than a suitcase on tatami. Send the large case or leave it down in Osaka.
• The meals are part of the stay. Say what you cannot eat before you arrive, not when the tray is down.
• Curfews differ by temple. A night walk has to fit the one you booked.

Okunoin after dark is the walk people mean when they say the night was the point. Guides run evening visits. You can also walk quietly on your own if the temple hour lets you back in. It is a cemetery, not a set. Lanterns, gravel, and other people who came to be still. Keep your voice down.

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What to leave for another day

Kongobu-ji and the Garan are the daytime sights, and they close. Arrive late and you will see them in a hurry or not at all. See one of them properly after lunch, go to the temple, then go out again after dark. Clearing the whole mountain between a late train and dinner is the plan that left Osaka too late.

A night here and an afternoon in Nara are different kinds of quiet. Nara is an easy few hours from Kyoto or Osaka, with the deer and the large Buddha and a train back. Koyasan asks you to stay. Do not stack them into one day with a suitcase. Pick the mountain night or the deer, and let the other one go.

You will be cold sooner than in Osaka. Clothes that were right for the city are thin at this height in October, and thinner in November. Put the warmer layer in the small bag, not in the suitcase that is still in Namba.