Koyasan

Koyasan sits roughly 60 km northeast of Wakayama City and is reached in about two hours by combining the JR Wakayama Line to Hashimoto Station, the Nankai Koya Line limited express to Gokurakubashi, and the five-minute Koyasan cable car up to the plateau, followed by a short local bus into town; travelers arriving via Osaka can instead ride the Nankai Koya Line directly from Namba Station. A one-day itinerary typically begins in the morning at Kongobu-ji, the head temple of Shingon Buddhism, and the adjacent Danjo Garan complex, where the vermilion Konpon Daito pagoda and Kondo hall anchor the founding precinct established by Kobo Daishi in 816. Midday is well spent walking the two-kilometer cedar-lined approach through Okuno-in cemetery, Japan's largest, passing tens of thousands of moss-covered tombstones and lantern-lit stone monuments before reaching Kobo Daishi's mausoleum at the far end. Lunch is best taken at one of the temple town's shukubo lodgings or restaurants along the main street, most of which serve shojin ryori, the vegetarian cuisine developed for resident monks, featuring sesame tofu and seasonal vegetables. Afternoon time allows for browsing the shopping street or visiting the Reihokan Museum, which houses Buddhist art and treasures from the mountain's temples. April through May and October through November bring the mildest temperatures and clearest mountain air for walking Okuno-in, while August draws crowds for the Okuno-in lantern festival (Rosoku Matsuri); winter visits are cold and occasionally snowy but far less crowded. Arriving on the first available cable car in the morning avoids both the midday tour-bus crush and the risk of missing the last connections back down the mountain, since departures thin out after early evening.