Friday, 5 August 2016

Hike to Koya san, Wakayama prefecture

My friends decided to go on a hike to Koya san in Wakayama, and I decided to tag along. Koya san is really famous for its temples, but we went to see the gorgeous mountain scenery around there. If you're actually going to see the temples, do the shortest hike or you won't get up to the mountaintop on time. We had a pretty early start from Osaka, and did a hike that took like 7 hours, so by the end we were hot, tired, and it was like 4pm which is when temples usually close in Japan. Even though it was April when I went, the weather was so hot! But the hot weather made for some great photos~

We got off the train at Kamikozawa station, and did a super long but v pretty hike up to Koya san.
Something that really annoyed me was that even though it was in the middle of nowhere, it took them the same amount of time as me to get to Namba! Osaka uni's Minoh campus is in the countryside, which was a pain to be honest. Anyway, we got off at Kamikozawa, which was a few kilometres away from Koya san. but you don't have to hike there: There's a train and a funicular railway all the way up the mountain which is really convenient.

A sign warning out for bears- eek! Luckily, we didn't see any.

We got up to this huge gate at around 4 pm, which was just about time to walk through town, grab some snacks and start on the train home again. I took a couple of photos along the way, and I also saw some late Sakura!