Shukubo – the intro!

To stay in a shukubo is to experience a side of Japan, over 99% of the domestic population will never experience.

Shukubo are, in the simplest of terms, temple lodgings. As austere and potentially grim as that may at first sound,
and can often be proven to be, the level of comfort in a temple, or more accurately in its shukubo, is aimed
expotentially more at the inner being than at the material world.

Most of the buildings used to house those performing what is in essence a ‘pilgrimage’ are simple wooden affairs in keeping with the actual temple they belong to. All bar the most remote of locations will have running water and electricity.

Most will offer evening meals as well as breakfast with Buddhist menu norms the standard fare.

As simple as such religious based offerings may at first appear – or sound should you research beforehand – the taste and enjoyment of these morsels eaten for generations at temples around Japan will increase tenfold after a period of escoteric training if permitted in a given temple.

Many of the temple lodgings, particularly those in the Koya-san area of Wakayama Prefecture (a major religious area in Japan as the final resting place of Kobo Daishi, also known as Kukkai) permit those staying at the facility to enter end experience their morning rituals. Many actually recommend it.

Training can include Zen style meditation, calligraphy, cleansing the soul by offering your all in cleaning practices, writing or chanting sutras, and other routine Buddhist methods of training so if this is something you really want to do, check in advacne if such practices are offered – and are open to visitors at the time you want to visit.

Japan Hopper has helped a number of individuals head to shukubo of late so take a look through the hotel listings on the left of the top main page of JH, and start plannign your journey back in time.

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