Mat Koya – Page 4 – Matkoya's Blog

On the coast

2012-06-012012-06-01Mat Koya

Meanwhile I’m just 2 km away from Yakusōji, which is temple 23, on the coast. The route after will be pretty long, more than 75 km.
What’s it about?
Recently I’ve been thinking a lot, what to do with this blog here. Giving another more or less boring travel or better pilgrimage description, which anyway no one will read, besides some close friends and family? In the later case it would be probably better to write in German 😉
Some days ago I received an email from a dear friend and it hit me like a hammer. The question was, what’s the difference to pilgrimages in Bavaria and over there in Shikoku? Basically there is no difference, so why am I doing this?
I decided to write this blog on one side about this question – what do I want to get out of this? Where do I want to go from here. Obviously this will become some kind of personal growth story – hopefully 🙂
On the other side I will talk a bit about what happened and what I experience on this journey. Finding the answer to the question above is not only a dynamic process, it is directly connected with the experiences we make.

A Tip
After being at some of the temples, I think a good preparation for such a journey would be to find oneself a very long stairway and run it up and down for an hour. First without then with luggage on the back. Add a little more than you plan 😉
Just before going up to temple 20 I received some 3kgs of fruits as osettai. The weight diminished slowly. But the tough thing is to first walk up so many stairs with that package on ones back.

Big brother is watching you on [nearly] every gate

A-gyoUn-gyo

The First Steps

2012-05-232012-05-23Mat Koya

Easy walking from Ryōzenji towards Dainichji. I arrived there at 5:15 and the guy told me sorry, we’re closed and send me to some old cow stable – it’s save there, he said. But I didn’t like to sleep on the concrete floor, so I looked for some softer place, which I found near on the edge of the woods. During the night I could hear fears coming out and looking for food.
The next day I decided to go up to Taisanji – 大山寺. The plate I followed said 1.8km, but it meant 1.8km to the first rest place. On the end that were more than 5 or 6 km steep up and sometimes down through woods and mountain. It was very nice and interesting what for thoughts and associations are coming to ones mind, while following the path. On the end it was worth the effort. After climbing 108 steep stairs, a nice old looking temple awaited me.

大山寺
After i came down from there i just managed to come shortly before 5 o’clock to Jisōji 🙂
A bit later I met 2 funny guys in front of a Lawson shop, who are doing the Pilgramige reverse by bicycle. They got their blog here: http://temples88.blogspot.jp/?m=1

Interlude

2012-05-232012-05-23Mat Koya

A warm welcome at Ryōzenji by our old friend from Koyasan, Kinoshita San. She brought me to a wonderful onzen and later we enjoyed a nice dinner together. The next morning presented me the wonderful spectacle of a full sun eclipse.
Washing cloth and spending the night at a friendly guys house. All that filled my heart with gratefulness for these wonderful and nice people.

oishiii dinner 🙂

Prologue

2012-05-212012-05-21Mat Koya

On the second day I had to take it really slow. The last peace of way towards Jisoin were really hard. Steep downhill on a street is a burden especially for the knees. The price I had to pay the next day with knee pain, which slowed me down a lot until I decided to stop, realizing that I walked less than 15km. Nevertheless this was the right thing to do and the knee stopped hurting the next day.
That night the North Face tent proofed itself the first time. I stayed on the shore of Kinokawa river. Rain and thunderstorm was knocking and wrenching on the walls of the tent. Next morning the sun was smiling down from the sky and I moved on. In the evening I allowed myself the luxury of visiting an izakaya in Iwase, a place in the outskirts of Wakayama city. He was so kind to invite me stay in his house over night. I felt so blessed! Hot shower, a big futon and a solid breakfast – with beer instead of coffee! – the next morning.

my hosts in front of their shop
The next day I could still walk for some time along the river but at one point I had no chance than to use the street until I reached the ferry port. In the evening I finally reached Shikoku. From Tokushima ferry port until Ryōzen-Ji it’s still some 30km mostly along streets.

Ryōzen-Ji

First day

2012-05-17Mat Koya

Late starting is not a good idea. After I was done with packing, going to Okunoin, writing mails and saying good bye to dear Takeshi, it was already 2 in the early afternoon. I thought Koyasan – Kudoyama, that’s half am hour by car, won’t be to long. On the end I came into the night and lost the way on the last 2km. These last couple of kms are the toughest part. It goes down hill, very steep on a concrete road through plantings of peach trees and this is burden for the knees, so it slows one down.
Now I’d like a shower or hot ofuro, all what is available here is a toilet, at least I can wash myself 🙂
The tent I bought before (North Face Mica1) is really small, but sufficient and built up in a couple of minutes. The low wright of 1.6kg is also a big plus.
Anyway I still have the feeling of carrying to much weight around, I’ll see if there’s anything I can throw off the next days. The sleeping bag,although it,s down, is quite big and heavy. On the other side it feels very cozy and it’s still fresh during the night.

Preparing to set off to Shikoku

2012-05-122012-05-12Mat Koya

This week I decided very spontaniously to do the Shikoku pilgrimage. The current plan is to start from Koyasan next Tuesday after doing Goma at Muryokoin in the morning. I’m still thinking what to take with me, the little computer to write this blog here? Or just a note book, the old way with pen and paper? Which shoes? The classical trekking shoes or the more funky 5-finger shoes?

Anyway, before I start I need to finish this eMail component I’m working on in 4D. This thing gave me some headaches, because of the way, how Apple Mail handles emails. Apple Mail, as well as Thunderbird don’t recognize the lenght of a html eMail if it is built up only with divs and spans. The result is that attachments are placed over the text of the mail, which looks especially funny with pdfs. So now I’m counting the height of the mail and add invisible lines in the background before the attachment is added. The dispostion type of attachment is anyway ignored by most MAUs. Very funny for what is there then anyway?

Summer Festival at Kokenji

2011-06-27Mat Koya

Next Weekend there will be a big event with live music and dance performances at Kokenji, near Okayama.
You will be also able to watch a public goma ceremony on Sunday!
Information how to come there can be found at www.kokenji.org
More information soon 🙂

Snowwhite in Koyasan

2010-12-272012-05-12Mat Koya

Yesterday I went to our dentist, just for checkup. On the way back I took these photos at the Aritoshi Shrine. I nice place just next to the road, where one wouldn’t expect it:

the temporarity of a car 😉

Sake for the Kamis 🙂

you need to get up to find the door

Daruma with a chairleg pointing to his nose

Bridge to heaven?

Recently I like to spend some time in the coffee-bar around the corner and read a bit there with a slow coffee.

Yesterday their garden still looked like this:

the no smoking sign mirrors in the window 🙂
And today everything changed overnight:

After the coffee I took a walk to the Garan, the garden of Kobodaishis teachings:

Osaka

2010-11-152010-11-15Mat Koya

Yesterday I first enjoyed a nice Karate training and expected sore muscles after, which didn’t happen 🙂 Right after I went to Osaka and had a yummy cappuccino. I’m only wondering why I get a cinnamon stick instead of a spoon. What a waste of natural resources.

This morning shomyo and tonight party 🙂

Nice reading: It’s up to you from Dzigar Kongtrül

Back Home

2010-11-122010-11-12Mat Koya

Momiji – Indian Summer in Koyasan

After a long travel we are back in Koyasan. All trees are colored and it’s quite cold – heating again with kerosene heaters and feeling cozy warm in feather beds and jackets. My heart is somehow still in India and looking forward to plans for the next year. I already signed up for a Yoga Therapy course for next year 🙂

The most happy about our return is probably this gang here:

Yesterday I taught first yoga class after coming back and I was … confused, especially about words. Even such simple things like “back” or “shoulders” wouldn’t come to my mind anymore. On the end I was told, that it was good, uffff. I was so released! Although students are not so demanding by asana performance, they are by atmosphere – kimoji, that is what is important and komji ga ii – meaning the feeling was good – is the best compliment you can get. If people tell you, you are jousou, which means skilled – it was really the opposite!

Now some other things need to be done first ….