Checked out the monkeys now it’s time to head back to our lodging and then off to dinner. Our lodging is a monastery stay or “temple lodging” (shukubo) which has been a tradition in Japan’s temple cities. Typically, the lodging consists of a small room with tatami mats on the floor, bedding is on a futon mattress, shared facilities (ours also has a men’s and women’s separate onsen but you can reserve the onsen for a couple), and includes breakfast and dinner.

Monastery House entrance

Lobby

No shoes inside the house

O2 room

Western style dining area

As I said, when we dropped off our bags I noticed there were additional futon mats inside the closet. These will make a nice addition to the thin futon mat already on the floor! Now off to the included dinner.

Complete with phone

Extra mats,YES!

The Noway table

Normally, the dinner would be at the monastery house, but this particular house does not have a dinner option so our tour company bought dinner at a local restaurant. Bad idea. The dinner we all received was called a “bento box” and consisted of 5 very thinly sliced pieces of meat on a bowl of rice. Everyone was still hungry after dinner so we all went to a 7-11 to get sandwiches. Lesson learned for our tour company!

Back at the house, it was time for me and the misses to take our onsen. The process is fairly straight forward. First you sit on a small stool, fill a bucket or pail with water, and wash your body, not your hair. Once you are clean, it’s time to enter the onsen for a bit of relaxing. Women with long hair are supposed to tie their hair up so as not to get it in the onsen. No clothes or swimsuits are allowed. After your 20 minutes or so, get out of the onsen and take a shower, put on your clothes and your yukata and relax.

Onsen

After a good onsen, nothing like a nice bottle of sweat.

Early, very early, the next morning we’re up and out of the house to get to the temple in time for our blessing. Everyone lined up along the road to the temple and waited for the Head Monk to make his way to the temple. Soon we were all told to kneel and place your hands together in prayer mode, look down and wait for the monk to come by and bless you. We did this once before in Thailand but we didn’t have to kneel on the ground, just bow. Different strokes.

Temple

Temple entrance

The Head Monk came by with his entourage and began blessing all the people lining the street. I don’t recall him saying anything, just hitting my head with his wooden string of beads. I guess that was the blessing, or an awakening.

We followed the procession into the temple and took a seat (no kneeling for this boy) to witness the morning ceremony. About 2/3rds the way through, we all got up and walked to the side of the altar where we were directed to go into a small tunnel. The tunnel was absolutely pitch black, no way to tell what was in front or behind you. As we walked, we were instructed to keep one hand on the wall so you didn’t become disoriented and panic. I guess it has happened before.

After 10 minutes in the tunnel, we emerged and went back to our seats for the rest of the ceremony. Moving on. A few last photos of the temple then off to catch our train to Kanazawa.

Buddha

Prayer cards and not so good fortunes

OK, one more photo. The Seven Gods of Fortune or Shichifukujin in Japanese. These deities have been worshiped for over a thousand years and are said to bring good luck. Can’t hurt, give it a try.