Up early today for our 6:30am Buddhist prayer service with the monks. Difficult to work out what was going on, and damn near impossible to kneel for half an hour, but a really interesting experience. After our dose of religious experience we headed back to the room to pack our bags, then head to breakfast, a mixture of mostly unidentifiable objects that the monks call food. I’d been doing well with the Japanese food so far, but I couldn’t manage this meal. After a poor attempt at eating we were back in the room eating the bananas and snacks we had bought from the mini-mart yesterday.

Next we were off to explore the other end of the village. A large area of temples and shrines was close by, with some amazing buildings dating from the 9^th century, with additions made right through until the 20^th century. Being much colder than down at sea level, the cherry blossoms were still out at Koyasan.

We took the train back to Osaka, and met Michiko and her uncle late afternoon for a short river cruise, before checking in to our hotel at Shin-Osaka – the worst hotel yet. Tiny, smelly rooms with windows that don’t open. At least we had a nice dinner and bottle of wine at a restaurant in the nearby station.