Koyasan (Mount Koya)

Mount Koya is the spiritual centre of Shingon Buddhism, founded in 816 by the monk Kukai (Kobo Daishi). A UNESCO World Heritage Site, this mountaintop monastic town holds over a hundred temples, many offering shukubo lodging where visitors can taste vegetarian temple cuisine and join morning prayers. Its heart is Okunoin, Japan's largest cemetery, where a moss-covered path lined with towering cedars and some 200,000 memorials leads to the mausoleum of Kobo Daishi — a place of profound stillness, especially under lantern light.