After reading the positive reviews of Koyasan on japan-guide.com, I decided to spent my second night in Japan at Rengejo-in, Mount Koya (booking through Japanese Guest Houses). I was hesitant as, at the time of booking, I do not think that there were any tripadvisor reviews and the temple was my 4th preference, the others being booked out. I was also slightly apprehensive as when I mentioned an overnight stay at Mount Koya, locals in Osaka laughed and made a motion of being hit with a stick, and I'd heard a few nasty stories back home.

The stay at Rengejo-in was phenomenal. We were welcomed to a meditation session (about 40 mins I think), and a delicious meal was provided (10 dishes brought out one after the other of traditional food). I only saw about 4 other tourists staying at the temple, one of whom was an aussie chef who had originally gone to the temple to learn the style of cuisine traditional to the temples, but who had stayed on far longer because he had come to like the lifestyle so much. Breakfast was very nice as well, with many different meals too. The monks were truly outstanding hosts.

The rooms were fine (see photo), although it was a bit of a shame that there was a tv in the corner. Heating was provided (and needed!)

If you visit during the winter like I did, you might get lucky and have some snow. Made the gardens at Rengejo-in look awesome.

Make sure you allocate a good few hours to wander round the moss-covered Okunoin cemetery on Mount Koya - the place is breathtaking, and the clash of the old and the corporate is incredible.

We stayed here a night back in November and we can't gush about it enough. This was the single most extrodinary place we stayed. The temple is old with a lot of history behind it and the monks explained the ceremonies in English as well as Japanese so everyone understood. The food was AMAZING, the best food we had in all our stays.

I stayed one night in Koyasan and it was the first time for me to stay in a traditional japanese house. It is more a hotel whith a temple the a temple with acommodation. I was welcomed very warm and everybody there was so friendly. The rooms are nice and have a heater which is really important in November. The ceremonies which you can participate are really worth to wake up early in the morning and the vegan food is really great (even if I usually allways have meat for meals). The atmosphere is so quite an relaxing and it was such a contrast to the rest of my tour. For some people it might be a little bit confusing because there is no ensuite room and you have to share the common bath. You can walk to all the place which are worth visiting by foot or you can take the bus. I will be back in November 2011

Koya-san – and particularly, the Oku-in Cemetery – is one of the most charming, atmospheric and eerie places to visit in Japan. Its streets, lined with temple complexes and monasteries, are quiet (in early April, at least). The cemetery is vast, a maze of graves and stone torii, covered in moss, shadowed from the sun.

We chose to stay overnight at Rengejo-in, wanting to experience accommodation in a temple lodging with evening and morning meditation. The temple, apparently, is one of the few with English-speaking staff, including the abbot, which made the stay more rewarding as he explained the purpose of the meditation and carried out his sermon in English.

The accommodation was basic, as expected. Our room was separated from three others by sliding paper doors and it got very chilly at night. The food was vegan, but tasty. The temple grounds were attractive and the monks helpful.

What let this temple down was the number of people. We had, perhaps naively, expected there to be only a few other people staying – in fact, there were probably 50-60 other people staying, including a coach party of rowdy Japanese pensioners, which meant we were never able to experience the solitude (or, indeed, anywhere near the tranquillity) that we had come for.