Hello, can you help me with a tricky question? I would like to stay at a temple lodging. We will be in Kyoto at the end of July, hot! We had thought of Koya san, but it takes around 3 hours to get there, plus it fits in our itinerary at the weekend. I have heard that Koyasan is very busy at the weekend. Is there a sutable alternaitef on the outskirts of kyoto, or something within 1 hour travelling with the train? We had also hoped that the altitude might give us a little bit of a cooler situation than the centre of kyoto. Any other tips are very welcome.
Kibune is a mountain village about 30min from Kyoto. I don’t think they have temple lodging, mainly luxury ryokan. Temperatures are about 5 degrees lower than in Kyoto though. Try posting your question at japan-guide (japan-guide.com forum - Questions -) or tripadvisor and you might get the answer you are looking for.
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Yes, it takes time to go there, but realise that it’s a very nice trip by train through the mountains to Koyasan finally wit a cable train up to the mountain. And there are many temple lodgins where the monks prepare very nice meals. It’s much more than a ryokan.
We rented the “Hanare” (guest house with own garden) in the temple Hoyoshin-inn. Absolutely feboulous and the best Japanes meal ever!
We visited one day in the end of July and it was not crowdy at all. I cannot imagine that there will be so many daytrippers also not in the weekend. It’s a small village with many temples a nice semetry and in one day you can see it all.
Succes!
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