Kokuu Guesthouse Koyasan
“The train ride to Koyasan is mesmerizing, specially when you travel during sakura season. Koyasan is known as the holy mountain. While wandering around the village and the buddhist cemetery, you soon realize that this mountain is holy indeed. You can feel it through the fresh mountain air, this place feels special.”
Of course it also helps that Koyasan is home to about 120 temples. You’ll see monks walking down the streets the whole time! One of the options in Koyasan is to stay the night at a temple, but as this is quite expensive and fully booked in high season I decided to opt for something else: Kokuu Guesthouse.
The guesthouse is located just at the end of the village, next to the very impressive Okunoin: the largest cemetery in Japan. It looks like a cosy cabin from the outside, on the inside it’s a perfectly stylized guesthouse. To me this place is Japanese minimalist design in a nutshell. A design you see in a lot of places in Japan: simple, clean, again minimal but also very beautiful. Everything in Japan seems to be just gorgeous and this guesthouse is no exception.
There are several private rooms but also the typical Japanese cabins. Unlike most cabin hotels, these cabins actually do have plenty of space. With the modern white design it also feels a lot bigger than it looks like. There are several options for breakfast and dinner: host Ryochi makes a very spicy curry. Be warned!