I went in japan 2 times, and in both travels I visited the Koya-San, a mountain with a cemetery in the forest, a very calm and spiritual place.

Last time I was there with my GF and weather was cloudy with a chance of rain.
We were sleeping in a temple, so after an early dinner (it was winter, so the sun was already out by 5PM) and a onsen we decided to dress up again and walk through the cemetery by night.

There was this “thin” rain, drizzling on us, and we were walking with 1 umbrella.
In front of us there was only a lone man, no other seemed to be interested in that place at night.

Since we felt like stalkers we choose a different path than the man ahead so we could both enjoy the silence of the graveyard at night.

At the end of both paths (they riunited) there was this big temple, full of lighted lanterns.
We walk up to the stairs together with the man.
He goes left, we go right to walk around the temple under the light of the lanterns.

And there it was the thing that made this the most memorable night.

There was this absolute silence that broke with a girl singing inside the temple.
Her voice resonated all around us, it was something magical and everything was amplified by the atmosphere, the lanterns, the light rain.

We get to the back of the temple, right there they stand a man and a woman.
The man is praying with a loud tone, and the woman sat behind him in silence.
He was sad.
We cross again with the other man, and we leave the couple behind, then we get back.
The voice of the girl stopped, and yet stayed with us for all the rest of our trip.

PS: I always advise everyone to take a trip to Koya san 🙂 it’s a wonderful place.