Koyasan Shukubo Saizenin

The temple is just beautiful, I would say one of the nicest we visited during our two days in a koyasan. The rooms are very basic and you must share the bathrooms but there is a sink in the room. The food is traditional vegetarian dishes presented so beautifully and the staff/monks were helpful and smiley. We went to the morning prayers too. The location is perfect.

Sharing the bathroom wasn’t ideal but most temples are set up that way. The price was very high for the night.

Everything was perfect, exceptional location and great food

We liked the vegetarian food and the architecture of the building.

We were not sure if there were any gardens that we could access or quiet space for contemplation other than our room.

Saizenin Temple is a 7-8 min walk from the bus stop. We reached late-morning and since check-in was at 3pm, left our luggage with the Temple reception and returned after visiting the local attractions. The room was quite spacious and had a small folder with a little information for the guests. It was December, so it was very cold in the Koyasan area. However, the room AC unit serves as a room heater as well. Dinner was served at 5.30pm. The staff (mostly student monks) serve the dinner in your room and also take the plates and make up the futon beds for you. The beds and duvets were comfortable. The pillows were quite soft, so we requested an additional pillow for each of us. The shared / common WC and onsen area (separate for men and women) were very clean. Early next morning we watched the ‘Buddhist Prayer’ ritual. 

1. The board ‘Meditation at 4pm for additional JPY 1000’ at reception put us off. After paying USD 250 for a night, the least that they could have done was to keep the meditation session complementary for guests. We skipped it. 2.During winter, it gets dark in Koyasan by 4pm and by 4.30pm it is pitch dark. Check-in is at 3pm and dinner time is 5pm-5.30pm. There is NO activity either before dinner (other than the PAID Meditation at 4pm) or after dinner. There is NO introduction to the temple or its history, NO walkaround or any details thereof as most temple halls are off limits. 3.Based on previous guests reviews, we had read and prepared ourselves mentally for the Buddhist vegetarian dinner and breakfast. It was presented beautifully on the plates, but was completely bland. There was zero salt and zero spice, so no taste whatsoever. Even though we wanted to experience the buddhist way (of monks), the food left us utterly disappointed. Same for the next morning’s breakfast. It was more bland than the dinner. We just couldnt wait to check-out and get on the train to Osaka. 4.Breakfast is served immeditaly after the morning prayers at 6.30-6.45am. Most guests checkout and leave the temple after breakfast. So did we. Once again, there is NO effort to show you around the temple rooms, premises or engage the guests in any activity whatsoever. So whatever little we learnt about Saizenin and the Buddhist way of living was from our Google search. NOTHING from actually spending a night in a temple. 5. For USD 250 per night, it was a VERY DISSAPOINTING EXPERIENCE for us.