Okunoin Cememtery
So after breakfast I returned to my room to pack and get checked out. I was sad to be leaving after such a short stay, but onto the big adventure for the day-Okunoin Cemetery. However, it didn’t take me long to get sidetracked on my way out the temple. As no sooner was I 20 feet from my room, than the tripod was out and I was shooting. The place was just too beautiful and every time I turned my head, I saw something new and interesting.
I spent the next hour shooting around the pond that I had been looking at as I ate. The closer I looked, the more I noticed like the giant spiders or new fish swimming in the pond. There were little details everywhere that just begged to be discovered.
The monk, who didn’t speak English, was doing his daily routine of cleaning and had made his way to where I was. He found a gecko that was clinging to an inside window of a door and summoned me over to show me. These geckos apparently only live indoors here and it seemed I was lucky to have been able to see one. I tried to photograph it, but it just didn’t seem to want to have its picture taken as it did it’s best to hide, eventually climbing away behind the wall. The monk then took me to a corner of the pond to show me the frogs that I had missed as they were completely camouflaged and making no noise.
I could have stayed for several days just photographing inside the temple itself and never exploring any other part of Koyasan. I still spent another half hour wandering around the grounds of the temple after checking out before finally going into the cemetery. Continue reading “Okunoin Cemetery (Koyasan part 4)”
