My parents took Eric and I on a trip to Mount Koya (Koyasan) and Shirahama in Wakayama, the prefecture south of Osaka.
Mount Koya, which was designated as World Heritage Site in 2004, is the centre of Shingon Buddhism.
Over 100 temples stand in the small town on top of the wooded mountain.
One million pilgrims visit Koyasan every year and people in Koyasan compare their town to Vatican City.
My grandparents final resting place is Okunoin, the mausolem of Kukai (Kobo Daishi) who intorduced Shingon Buddhism to Japan (I think they must be really happy to be with one of the most famous religious person in Japan !), and is surrounded by a huge graveyard with over 200,000 gravestones.
Okunoin's graveyard used to be a place for royal families and Daimyo (powerful territorial lords in premodern Japan), but now it has become a place where large Japanese companies pay tribute to former executives and employees that have passed away.
This graveyard is a kind of rare place because it has become a sightseeing place with lots of tourists.
If you wish to know more about Koyasan, this would be a nice article:
search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fv20060519a1.html
Okunoin, Koyasan, Wakayama.
