Henjoson-in Temple (Pilgrim's Lodging)

We had a wonderful time and experience at Henjoson-in. The living facilities are 5-star. The private bathroom and washroom are spa quality and very clean. The beds and pillows are exceptionally comfortably even though they may not seem like it at first. Our room had a nice view of the outside garden. All the temple staff were very friendly and knew more English than we expected. We left our camera on the dining table and one of the monks rushed to catch up with us to return it. Although the food is all vegetarian, we found it delicious while wearing our Yukatas.

The staff were friendly, the room was spacious and beautiful, the onsen was lovely, and the grounds are beautiful. In addition, it's right across the street from the best shrine in the area. The food was AMAZINGLY good and I could barely finish the amount they gave us for dinner. It was akin to the $80-100 meals you get in Gion district in Kyoto. You are not awakened to go to the morning services by the staff; that is totally your choice. I did and found it to be a very cool experience. I wore earplugs, so if I hadn't set an alarm, the staff moving about wouldn't have been noisy enough to awaken me. The breakfast wasn't as satisfying as the dinner, but was still quite tasty. They had no problem holding on to my luggage so I could spend the day sightseeing. They are centrally located. The whole town only takes about 30 min to walk from end to end. I was pretty dubious about spending so much for a temple stay (though this was not nearly as expensive as others at $200 a night), but really felt it was worth it. For those sinners out there, they have a smoking area, they allow tattoos in the onsen, and they sell alcohol both at dinner and in vending machines. The wifi is public wifi so it's on and off, but good enough.

We had a lovely stay here, we felt most welcome and the room was really comfortable and warm. ||What however really swung it for us was the food. It was out of this world! Dinner and breakfast were presented beautifully and we had so many food tastes we hadn't experienced before. There must be a lot of effort goes into the food, it was a fantastic experience for us both. ||After dinner we both enjoyed an onsen style bath before bed. Overall, it was a lovely Japanese experience for us.

Koyasan is a pleasant, interesting town at 800 meters altitude. There are several clusters of historic temples which are worth a visit. Koyasan is also famous for the temples which have turned into places where you can stay. Many guests are Japanese. ||We stayed here one night in August 2018 and had a spacious, pleasant room where we stayed with 3 people. Unlike most of the rooms we had our own toilet and bathroom with shower and bathtub. ||All the food is strictly vegan. For once an interesting experience. ||Staff is very friendly but their English language skills are limited.

Me and my girlfriend stayed here for 1 night at the start of September 2014. After some effort to find the place we was amazed by the beautiful exterior of the temple. Nice zen garden and a wooden temple. ||||Tip for people traveling to Koya san: Do not bring large suitcases. Have the hotel send them to your next destination and bring a backpack with essentials. ||||Apparently we was the only guests staying at the inn this day. So we had the whole place to ourselves The staff did not speak a word english. As we are Norwegians we are not fluent in Japanese. It was somewhat difficult to communicate. Don't really think they are to blame as they are monks and work/live there. Would be nice to have somebody to talk to.||||The rooms were ok. Nothing special. Futons on floor. Beautiful garden. Nice and quiet. There were some dirt stains on pillows and floor. ||||If you do stay here you have to try the public bath (separate for men and women). It was very nice.||||We prepaid for breakfast and attending the morning sermon. The food was all vegetarian, which is ok, but this food was not for our taste. We ended up eating at a restaurant. The sermon was interesting, but we did not know what to do or what was happening as nobody spoke english. ||||Koya San as a place deserves 5 stars, but this place only deserves 3. For what we paid it was not worth it.

It was the highlight of my trip. I loved the place, so peaceful. I recommend to stay more than 1 night. I had one of the most relaxing nights of my life in here. Food is vegetarian/vegan but extremely good. However is really early.

We lucked into this shukubo - it was available for our dates and was in what appeared to be a good location for our interests on the mountain.||||Turned out, it was perfect. The location is central to all the major spots you’ll want to visit. ||||If you arrive earlier than check-in time, as we did, you can leave your luggage at the front door and they will hold it for you. We found the young monk who greeted us to be quite friendly. We saw him several times during our stay. When we checked out, the head monk took our keys. He too seemed pleased that we stayed with them and that we stayed for such a long stay. When we returned to check in after doing some early site-seeing, we did not work with a monk but with an staff member whose job was similar to the front desk clerk at an hotel. He checked us in, explained the workings of the temple, showed us where to find things, explained the timings for meals, prayer ceremony, public bath||||Our Japanese style room with garden view was large and lovely. The view to the small interior garden was perfect: a stone bridge with a small red maple tree was right outside our floor to ceiling window. We booked a room with a toilet which was sufficient for our needs. We used the communal bath so didn’t need to make use of the showers in the wash room down the hall. The public baths alternate location daily - one is upstairs, one not. The baths are among the largest ancient cypress communal baths on the mountain. Take care with the stairs up, they are quite steep. We are used to sleeping on futons and the ones in the room were very comfortable. ||||The food was lovely. All meals are Shojin-Ryori (vegetarian Kaiseki) and absolutely beautifully presented. Seating in the large dining room rotated daily so we had our favorite table only to lose it, but then we got it back again another day. We stayed for 3 nights. At some ryokans we've stayed at, three nights meant a repeat dinner on the third night, but not here and we found that quite nice. The same held true for breakfast - 3 different breakfasts. My only complaint about the food was that after 3 days I didn’t want to see another piece of tofu in any way shape or form for the rest of our 6 week trip. The tofu I liked the best was a tofu burger with vegetables incorporated in the mixture.||||The morning ceremony in the gorgeous prayer hall is not to be missed. The main hall is a bit chilly, be sure to dress warmly and take one of the blankets piled up by the door. I’ll not spoil the occasion by describing the ritual in the space below the main hall. The monk who greeted us when we first arrived seemed pleased that we attended the morning ceremony. After it was all over I asked the monk if I could return to the hall and take a few photos. He willing agreed and even offered to pose for me. ||||An added amenity which we didn’t find available at many other shukubo was a gift/souvenir/religious paraphernalia shop and drinks machines which include beer! There is a commons room with piano and an open seating area in one hallway, with a smoking area. The hallways have flower displays and some paintings. They are quite chilly so we didn’t linger long. Walking around the temple can be a bit tricky. You leave your shoes at the entrance where there are slippers lined up in several sizes. No size was right and none seemed to stay on: we prefer to walk in our socks when faced with such slippers at castles, but here we didn’t want to offend, so we wore the slippers but tended to trip on non-existent goblins in the floor.||||Other than the slippers and the overabundance of tofu, this was a perfect place. We loved it here and would happily return.

Staying at a Buddihist Temple is a great experience. I felt at peace from the moment we walked in. The rooms are very nice, and once the heating was on we were very comfortable. We took rooms that have a private bath (something rare in this type of accommodation). The food was great. A very big selection. Meditation at 6 am was a great experience.