Shōjin Ryōri on Kōyasan

After leaving Kyoto, my boyfriend and I hopped several trains, a cable car up the mountainside, and a bus that wound its way up a narrow serpentine road to get to Kōyasan (Mount Kōya), head of the Shingon sect of Buddhism and home to 120 temples. Many of these offer shukubō, temple lodging, which includes dinner — a vegan shōjin ryōri meal, guaranteed to be free of dashi, meat stock, or anything else I usually have to watch out for in Japanese cuisine. This would be a treat for many reasons.

Kyoto: Kitchen Raku Raku

Our first night in Kyoto, we stayed at a Zen Buddhist temple in the Myōshin-ji complex near Kinkaku-ji (the Golden Pavilion). It was a great experience: we slept in the recently-built guest house rather than in the small main temple building itself, but we got to attend a Zen meditation class and have a private tour of the temple, which was established in 1590. Vice Abbot Taka Kawakami speaks good English, having spent something like 8 years in the U.S., and also had plenty of restaurant recommendations for us.