If you ever visit Japan, make sure that you pay a visit to Koyasan. I went there this past weekend and wow, what a weekend. I spent it on top of a mountain in a historical buddhist holy land, at a famous temple lodge with monks, and walked among graves of some of the most famous buddhists in Japan.

This place man.this place. It was unbelievable. To get there, you have to take a bus to Osaka, grab a Starbucks (ok I threw that in, but it is helpful), and then hop on the train. The train snakes up through the mountain side, and if you are lucky enough to go on a sunny fall day like I was, you will be amazed by some of the views. After an hour or so on the train, you transfer to a cable car that goes almost vertical up to the tip of the mountain.

From there, a bus whisks you away to wherever you should want to go in the village. My first stop was Okunoin, a famous buddhist burial ground. These graves, let me tell you...when I die, someone better hook me up. You wouldn`t believe the elaborate displays. Oh one really cute thing: a lot of the statues were wearing knitted sweaters (I think to keep them warm cuz it gets so cold at night!).

So you walk through this cobble-stone path of dead buddhists with magnificent gaves, and then you come to this area where it says `no photographing`. And you know that means something wicked important is going down here. So I walked up these stairs (I`ve found that in Japan, stairs almost always lead to something entirely more interesting). I entered this hall.the lantern hall I think it`s called.and it was absolutely haunting. There were thousands of lanterns, lining the ceilings and the numerous walls, burning almost a red colour. I read in my Lonely Planet that some of them had been burning for 900 years!

So I sneaked a picture in and a monk yelled at me, but it was worth it (I`ll have to be good this week to equalize my bad karma though).

After all this, I went to check into my temple lodge. I was greeted by this younger-looking guy, with ears that stick out, which made him look like the Japanese version of Will Smith, who showed me to my room. Dinner was served not long after. It was incredible. There were actually two tiers of it. All kinds of new tastes (no meat or fish). Oh and sake. Or as they call it, `enlightening water`.

Feeling rather enlightened from my holy dinner and holy drink, I decided to take a walk. This town is pretty quiet at night, but not really in an eerie way (although I did stay away from the grave yard). After a while, my feet started to hurt, so I headed back to my lodge. I got back by 8pm, and I wasn`t really sure what to do for the rest of the night. I wanted to spend some time just thinking and sorting stuff out in my head, but I was a little worried I might go crazy!

I had been lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling for nearly an hour, when there was a knock at my door. In walks the young man who showed me to my room, along with his friend. They ask me what I was planning on doing tonight, and I reply that I was just going to sit here and think, and then go to bed. So they`re all, well that`s boring, come to the pub with us.

So, when I was planning this weekend, here is what I didn`t think was going to happen: I didn`t think I would end up getting drunk with the son of the owner of the lodge I was staying in (also future inheriter of it), and his two friends who work there too. I didn`t think I would be singing Good Charlotte songs with the monks at the table next to us. I didn`t picture myself sitting in their communal room, watching a giant-screened plasma TV, listening to Beyonce on a wicked sound system, and eating mochee. Those are things I didn`t think would happen.

Um, but they did. And when I had to wake up for morning service the next morning at 6am, I was hating them for it. But I really enjoyed morning service. Turns out one of the monks speaks a bit of English, so he was talking to me afterwards. Then he came to my room while I was eating breakfast (not nearly as elaborate as dinner, but passable!), and asked me for my e-mail address. I`m not really sure what for, cuz I couldn`t really understand him, but I think it had something to do with teaching him English. I was like, sure why not. I mean, he`s a monk! That`s got to score me some wicked karma points, right?

And after that weekend, I`m going to need them.