LET THE JOURNEY BEGIN ...

Wakayama Guest House Shido, The Gateway to Koyasan!

7:47:00 PM

I suppose Koyasan, or Mount Koya is a less known place in Kansai Area as this sacred mountain is located in Wakayama Prefecture, and require a little time on travelling from Osaka. During my visit to Koyasan, I had two nights stay at Wakayama Guest House Shido in the town name 'Koyaguchi'.

Wakayama Guest House Shido is conveniently located near to JR Koyaguchi Station, just about 200 meters walk and the location makes it the perfect gateway to Mount Koya.

JR Koyaguchi Station is within the JR Wakayama Line that links Nara Prefecture to Wakayama Prefecture, the station is a very traditional and old station so it doesn't has any staff. If you are a JR Pass Holder there shouldn't be any problem, but if you were using ICOCA card like me, there is no machine to touch out. However, you don't need to worry about that, when you travel to another station with a counter information, you just need to tell them where is your embarkation station and give them your ICOCA card.

If you were planning to visit Mount Koya, I would strongly suggest you to go for at least 2 days 1 night trip rather than just day trip. Traveling from Osaka to Koyasan takes more than 2 hours, but from Guest House Shido it only took me about 1 hour, and the train journey along the way up to Mount Koya Cable Car is truly amazing!

Wakayama Guest House Shido is a historical building with traditional Japanese decoration, and the host, Kazu and his parents were very nice and friendly :) We had a great experience staying here.

The guest house has 2 rooms both with double bed, if you are traveling in a family, you can combine both rooms as the partition in the middle is movable. It is really spacious even just one room! I don't have the picture for bathroom and toilet, but I can assure that they kept it clean :)









They even prepared the famous Wakayama Orange for their guests, you could have tea and coffee for free as well. I like the way they welcome their guests :)

At Guest House Shido, there are some interesting traditional activities such as Zen experience, Art Experience and Samurai Experience. I had the art experience :) And my writing was printed on a T-Shirt too!

Even though Koyaguchi is a very small town and it was very quiet and calm at night, but I truly fall in love with the natural surrounding! The greatest escape from busy cities like Osaka or Kyoto.

Across Koyaguchi Station, you will find this Shinto Shrine, it has got marvelous view over Koyaguchi Town!



Just across the Kinokawa River over the Kudoyama Bridge, is Kudoyama Town, also known as Sanada Kudoyama whereby Sanada means Samurai. So why is Kudoyama of particular interest? Because it is the town where Yukimura Sanada, the most famous member of the Sanada clan and his father, Masayuki were exiled.


For more information about Wakayama Guest House Shido, visit their website at http://www.guesthouseshido.com/ or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/guesthouseshido/

You Might Also Like

0 comments

trazy.com