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Originally Posted by samurai007
Koya-san is one of my favorite places in all of Japan. The cemetery is incredible, there's tons of temples, and you can stay overnight in a temple to experience temple life (eating the vegetarian cuisine the monks eat, etc) For this reason, if you are able to spend the night there to experience a temple stay, that's best. But even as a day trip it's nice.
You can get to it from either Nara or Osaka's Namba station. From Namba, take the Nankai-Koya line directly to Koya-san (which is the last stop on the train line, and the ticket price includes the tram ride to the top of the mountain.) From Nara, take the train line that heads for Wakayama and change trains in Hashimoto City, getting on the Nankai Koya line there. It's faster and easier to head out from Namba, but the scenery of the train ride is nicer from Nara. Note that the Nankai-Koya line is not a JR train, so you can't use your rail pass on it if you have one. However, the train from Nara to Hashimoto is a JR train, which will get you halfway there.
Here's some pictures I took of of Koyasan:
Thank you samurai007 for sharing your wonderful pictures of Koya-san, it really looks beautiful there!
Thanks for the info regarding the trains. I personally would like to visit Koyasan, however, I have to check with the rest of the family members if that would work for them. I wonder if seeing Koyasan is feasible in a day trip including Nara? I somehow think it wouldn't be enough time as we have to get back to Kyoto later in the evening, as we have rented out an apartment there.
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You might be able to do it if you really hurried, but IMO that's too much for 1 day. What you could do is see Nara, then travel on to Koya san, spend the night in a temple, look around town the next day, and head back to Kyoto that afternoon/evening. But that's a waste paying for both the place in Kyoto and temple lodgings.
You could spend 1 day seeing Nara, return to Kyoto, then next day travel to Koya san as a day trip and back to Kyoto that evening. That's a lot of extra time riding trains, though, so much so that it might not be worthwhile. I'd estimate Kyoto to Koya san is about 3 hours each way by train, perhaps a bit more because of the need to change trains.... so that's 6 hours of train travel in 1 day. That's a lot.