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Koyasan, Japan
Welcome to Eko-in. A 1000 year-old Buddhist temple, Ekoin offers Japanese style guest rooms and one of them has a private bath and toilet. All of the guest rooms have a garden view. Guests are free to attend morning services and the Goma fire ritual. Guests can participate in Zazen meditation sessions from 16:30. Sessions can be translated in English and English brochures are available if there is no interpreter. WiFi is available in public areas and is free of charge. Rooms feature tatami-mat flooring, comfortable futon bedding and paper sliding screens. Eko-in provides shared baths (same gender only) for both women and men, and the public baths are open from 16:00-22:00 and 06:00-09:00 daily. Eko-in is close to other ancient Buddhist buildings such as Kongobu-ji Temple, which is a 10-minute walk. The Ichinohashi entrance to the ancient Okunoin cemetery is a 3-minute walk away. Meals are served at the guest room at 17:30 basically and feature Buddhist vegetarian cuisine. Groups of 4 or more persons dine at the Japanese style dining room. It’s also the starting point of the Okunoin night tour.
Highlight of our trip to Japan
Spent one night at Eko-in and it was the best part of our trip to Japan. Our second time visiting the country, we wanted to see more than just the large cities, and were interested in learning more about the history and practice of Buddhism in Japan. The inn was comfortable, quiet, and so beautiful. Wish we had stayed two nights! We payed a bit extra for a garden view + private bathroom and our room was incredible.
By Emily
Wonderful experience for one night
I traveled through Japan for three weeks and Koyasan is one of the most interesting experiences I’ve had in this beautiful country. The monks at Eko-in are very friendly, they speak English perfect and their temple is a charm. That being said, it’s also one of the most populair temple and I could tell: after I arrived and wanted to stroll the streets, a group of 20 or more British tourists arrived. They were friendly people, but I couldn’t read in a quiet place in the temple as these tourists were talking ALOT. I was disappointed in how many tourists visited Koyasan. Anyway, picture the tourists away and you will have an amazing day/night in Koyasan. I recommend walking the cemetary at night by yourself instead of a group (Eko-in gives a tour). It’s more magical and when I went back to temple, I’ve seen two large groups walking after a monk. Glad I didn’t participate. At the end of the cemetary there was a monk chanting/singing/praying, which was truely magical. I was very lucky to arrive just on time for that. The free meditation session on the day of arrival, the Buddhist session in the morning as well as the fire ritual were outstanding. This highlighted my trip for sure. Be sure to participate! The food was okay, the room was typical Japanese which is nice, the stay overall was great as well as the hospitality and the surroundings are beautiful. I’d recommend to stay one full night.
Fantastic
Eko-in is a a very tranquil lodging in an already tranquil area, situated near the Okunoin Cemetery it is possibly the most peaceful place I have visited. The temple itself is beautiful, the staff speak great English and the rooms are lovely, thee come with two heaters, a flat screen tv and wifi. We were lucky to be staying on the 20th April (a special date) and went on the night tour of the cemetery and visited the temple within for a Buddhist ceremony. We also took part in the meditation and early morning prayer and fire ceremonies. I have taken 1 star off for the food not that there was anything wrong with it, it was delicious but there is only so much tofu I can eat. Highly recommend staying here