Japan Part 2 - Mount Koya/ Koyasan

My sister had a Japanese friend who was an opera singer. When I was 13, she came to my village to stay for a few days with us. Since I could only speak Mandarin, we communicated using our body languages as well as some Chinese characters written on papers that we both could understand. My father later told me that she sang in front of mountain ranges along the way back to the village. She said she had never seen such a greenish stretch of mountains in her homeland and that amazed and compelled her to praise the wonder of our nature.

2 weeks ago, I stood before a range of mountains in Japan, carrying the same feeling.



The Koyasan area has a history dating back to the year 1200. The collection of over 100 temples is Japan's temple capital. A very scenic location makes this one of Japan's great cultural experience that we can't give it a miss.

We stayed in a temple named Shojoshin-in 清静心院 in Koyasan 高野山 for 2 nights. It is a wonderful experience, a quintessence of Japan. We arrived at about 3pm and were welcomed by a monk and explained the temples rules, which we already knew from various websites:

Dinner time ist is 5.30 pm,

Bath time 4.00 - 9.00 pm

Morning Ceremony at 6.00 am

Breakfast time is after the ceremony about 7.15pm.

This place is located just next Okunoin, a cemetery and a temple where Kobo Daishi (Kukai), the founder of Shingon Buddhism and one of the most revered persons in the religious history of Japan, rests in eternal meditation. It is considered one of the most sacred places in Japan.

The temple is really beautiful and the zen garden is immaculate. Tranquil, comfortable, atmospheric, good food, great location. I will show you more in the next post (my flikr account is burst and I am still figuring how to upload more! ><)

The walkway from our room leading to the public bathroom that can be shared among 4 people. Our room with futons.

At night, we were served with vegetarian meal aka shōjin ryori, which is purely vegetarian food that is intended for monks. Kobo Daishi created this special style of food preparation specifically for Koyasan. It is a very traditional style of food, without meat or fish. The rules of preparation are very strict, in accordance with ancient custom. No meat, no garlic and onions were used in the cooking. which consisted of vegetable clear soup, tempura vegetables, beans, tofu, pickles, green tea & fruit with rice.

I truly enjoy the rice here. May be some of the dishes were too sweet and salty to my liking but with rice, it's just right. It's okay to eat the rice ALONE. The way they cook it, is simply PERFECT!

Beside the rice, Koyasan tofu is also our favourite. It's my first time eating such a silky, creamy, sweet tofu that one for each person simply too little.

Shojoshin-in's entrance.

At the back of Shojoshin-in.

Our walk towards Danjo Garan (壇上伽藍).

Japan Part I - Kyoto

We have just come back from Japan about 2 weeks ago, without much delay, dive into our work the follwing day. Due to limited time, I only manage to extract some of the photos from the first few days in Japan, basically in Kyoto, to show to our readers here.

Japanese are lovely.

They are polite and friendly, also eco-friendly. Most mothers ferry their kids to-and-fro schools or places by bikes.

Alternatively, they are being carried around more intimately, not in a baby pram.

They wear their traditional costumes with pride.

You can see them praying and making wishes in temples, just like us (Chinese).

Shrines can be seen everywhere. Holy or sacred places, dedicated to a specific deity, hero, martyr, saint of awe and respect.

They have big castles too. This castle is Nijo Castle. The scenes set up inside are very appealing but I can't take any photos, afraid of discolouring old paintings, only a few photos on the outside.

Not far away, strolling through of the beautiful Japanese Parks - Maruyama Park, can go there for an experience different from that of a tropical city.

Beautiful landscape across the park. Clean and serene, whispering the beauty of Japanese culture.

A few steps leading to heaven?

Leaves are on fire! Full of energy and well-prepared for the coming winter.

Before the sunset, the moon steals the limelight.

A Japanese traveller before the sunset.

A maple leave reminds me of our stories in Kyoto, Japan.

Lor Ark Version II

While watching Dark Night tonight, it is also our Duck Night.

We just can’t get over the Soy Sauce Duck (Lor Ark) yet, not yet. In Japan recently, I saw this flying duck over our heads and we said: Flying Lor Ark.

Oh no, what on earth were we thinking then?

Anyway, after coming back from Japan, we decided to take a break from our normal sushi cum ramen diet, make a switch to local dishes, so tonight, we had what else other than… deng deng deng! Lor Ark!

We had a slight adjustment in the previous recipe, in the way we make the sauce. Instead of just marinating the duck with the normal sauce, we just heat the sauce so that the sugar can be easily diluted into the sauce. Also, we quadruple the amount of onions to 100g. We find that the previous sauce were a bit diluted so we continue cooking the sauce and reduce it by half.

The end result:

The Lor Ark is indeed tastier! Brighter colour, stronger flavours, hmm... Lovely Lor Ark.

Okay, for now, some photos from Kyoto:

We went to this castle in Kyoto, quite a nice place.

That's it for now, in the next post, we will post more photos from Kyoto, and then Mt Koya and lastly, Tokyo.

Stay tuned!