What is it like to spend the night inside a Buddhist temple in Japan?

In Yamanashi Prefecture I discovered Habanobo (端場坊), a temple stay that has been welcoming travelers for more than 750 years. Unlike a ryokan or hotel, this is a true shukubō experience where guests live as part of the temple community, taking part in daily practice and finding peace in the surrounding mountains.

During my stay I joined the monks for the evening chanting of the Lotus Sutra, ate beautifully prepared shōjin ryōri (temple cuisine), and walked the famous 287 stone steps up to Kuonji Temple at sunrise. Each moment was both humbling and inspiring.

Habanobo is located on sacred Mount Minobu, the spiritual heart of Nichiren Buddhism. From the temple grounds you can explore hidden pagodas, centuries-old cherry trees, and on clear days even see Mount Fuji in the distance. The atmosphere is calm, authentic, and far away from mass tourism.

In my latest video on "Onsen with Hansen", I take you with me to experience this unforgettable templestay. You will see the rituals, the food, the quiet mornings, and the beauty of Yamanashi’s sacred landscape.

👉 Watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI1TJijBilI&feature=youtu.be

If you are interested in Japanese culture, spiritual travel, or simply want to discover something new in Yamanashi, a templestay at Habanobo is one of the most unique experiences you can have. Would you try it yourself?

Just a couple of hours by train from Tokyo lies the historic little village Chichibu (秩父). Referred to by some people (especially if you talk to locals) as “Kanto's Tibet” this place holds an interesting history reaching back more than 2000 years. One of Chichibu’s most famous tourist spots is the Mitsumine Shrine (三峰神社), which is hidden far away up in the mountains behind Chichibu.

Although most of the Korean citizens have a Christian background they still celebrate Buddha's birthday (부처님 오신 날) as a national holiday. This day is actually a big event in Korea, and temples all over the country has been decorated for the occasion. This year the celebration was held on the 17th May, which also happens to be Norway's Constitutional Day.

Celebrating Buddha's birthday at Bongsunsa Temple

The closest neighbor to our GIP-campus is the Buddhist temple Bongsunsa, and today it seems like a lot of visitors are taking the trip here to celebrate Buddha's birthday. As the temple is the head temple of the Jogye order it does attract quite a number of visitors regularly, and today they even had to utilize our campus to get enough parking space. Living in the middle of the forest it is kind of interesting having so many people taking the trip out here to visit our dear neighbor.. ^^

Anyway, it was quite nice to have this small celebration today as my family members and friends are celebrating Norway's constitutional day back home. Last year I celebrated the constitutional day at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Tokyo, but since I left my bunad (Norwegian folk costume) in Japan I don't really had the chance to dress up for the national day this year.

Buddha-paintings for sale outside the Bongsunsa temple

Candles

A family enjoying the show at the temple

One of the main temple buildings

Bongsunsa's monks parading

The temple and the forest

One of the statues in the temple

Lanterns

Pretty Buddha statues in the background

Soo many colorful lanterns..

Lanterns and the main temple building

Buddha

The main temple and lanterns

Haeinsa temple is one of the most famous temples in Korea, built in 802 and home to the Tripitaka Buddhist scriptures, which earned the temple a spot on UNESCO's world heritage list in 1995.
The temple is situated up in the Kaya mountain, and getting there can be a bit complicated, but it is definitively worth the trip.

Beautiful Haeinsa temple

In our case we traveled from Busan which turned out to be a better route than expected. From the Sasang terminal we took the bus to SeoDaegu in Daegu where we changed to a bus bound for Haeinsa. It couldn't have gone more smoothly. I think the trip all in all took around 3-4 hours.


The temple stay program starts at 4:30 in the afternoon during the spring and summer time, but since we got there early we also had the chance to walk a bit around the temple grounds. After all it is quite a big place, so it might be good to have some additional time to really explore the whole area.

The main hall of Haeinsa

Lanterns and the buddhist swastika, a 2500 year old symbol for luck.

The templestay practice hall

The temples with Kayasan mountain in the background

We met up again in the temple stay training hall at the designated time, and were met by a friendly lady who assisted the monks in explaining about the temple manners and translate between us and the monks. We were taught about temple manners and etiquette, which included things like how to arrange your shoes outside the entrance, how to hold your hands while walking in the temple grounds and so on.

Learning about temple manners

The dinner was served in the big dining hall alongside with the monks, which of course meant vegetarian food. After dinner we got to participate in the evening service at the main temple building, where we got to practice some of the bowing routines we had been practicing earlier that day.
With a group of around 11 participants it was a good opportunity to talk to the monks about their life in the temple as well, and in the evening we had a tea ceremony with one of the monks where all of us got to ask as many questions as we wanted.

Tea-time with one of the monks!

Ready for a night in Haeinsa

The first day ended early; we went to bed around 9 pm. But the second day started even earlier, as we had to meet up again at 3:20 am. The morning schedule included taking part in the Dawn Service inside the main temple building, and after that we went to the temple stay practice hall where we completed the 108 Prostrations.. This practice was quite interesting, and the focus of the prostrations gave me the impression that the practitioners of Buddhism seems to be a lot more focused on finding balance in life, with others and with nature than other big religions. On a side note I have to mention that I was quite impressed that my 68 year old grandmother managed to complete all the 108 Prostrations.
The next part of the program included a very, very long meditation. As we have meditation at school every morning at 7 am I wasn't too excited about meditating to be honest, but it is of course an interesting part of the culture experience too. One of the guys fell asleep during the meditation, so one of the monks punished him by hitting his back with a long stick. This is apparently quite common practice, and it does not really hurt.

Monks doing their morning chores at the temple

After the temple breakfast we had reached the last post on the program, which was a guided tour of the Haeinsa temple. This included a short visit to the two buildings containing the Tripitaka, where we unfortunately could not take any pictures. Anyway, it was interesting to here the guide explain about the buildings, and how they had been constructed to keep the temperature inside the buildings optimal for preserving the old heritage.
This was the last part of the temple stay, and after a short farewell it was time to say goodbye to the monks and our guide. I think the templestay program was a really unique and interesting experience which will stay in our minds for a long time.

Our final ceremony

If you are interested in doing a templestay in Korea, please check out this page.

Busan's most famous temple, the Yonggungsa, is situated in the eastern outskirts of the city. As we were staying close to the Haeundae beach it was also quite easy to get to the temple, since you can take bus number 181 which leaves from right outside the Heaundae station to get there.
In our case, however, we had decided to walk the Dalmaji road to enjoy the sight of the pretty cherry blossom, and decided to keep on walking to the other side of the mountain. After arriving on the other side of the mountain we figured out that it would take too long time to walk the whole way to Yonggung, so we ended up taking a taxi the last part of the way.

From Yonggungsa temple in the Haeundae area of Busan

The Yonggung temple is quite famous, much due to its unique location right by the seaside. It must be a beautiful place to see the sunrise..!
On the celebration of Buddha's birthday they'll be having a big festival here, and because of the festival the whole area was filled with poles and lines to hang lanterns on. Too bad for us, it didn't really look too flattering with all the poles covering the temple grounds. I still got some nice photos though, I hope you'll enjoy them:)

And some more pretty cherry blossom at the Yonggung temple!

One of the gates at the temple

Smiling Buddha

Yonggungsa Temple is situated by the sea

A cute statue

A golden and shiny Buddha

Lanterns by the sea

Quite nice atmosphere..!

Today I got visitors at my campus here in Korea for the first time!! Haha..

Tomoya and I in front of the entrance gate to Bongsunsa

Tomoya and his friend Ryosuke had actually taken the ferry from Osaka to Busan, and from there they drove all through South Korea in Ryosuke's family car. Yesterday they reached Seoul, and we decided to meet up. I mentioned that there was a nice temple by the dorm at Kyung Hee GIP campus where I currently live, so they decided to take the car come over. Normally it takes about 2 hours to get to Seoul by bus + metro from the campus, but it seems like there was a lot of traffic today so instead it took them 3 (!) hours to get here. It was an interesting place to meet up with Tomoya, whom I hadn't seen in a couple of months. I do feel kind of bad for making the two of them come all the way here to the middle of nowhere to visit me. But at least it seems they liked the temple^^

Statues by the road

One of the main buildings

Bongsunsa temple was first built in 969, but as the temple has been burned down several times it has also been rebuild a couple of times through history. Still, it is a popular destination (mostly for Koreans), and during the weekend it is always filled with people. Thanks to this temple we do have a couple of restaurants outside the campus, because there is really not anything else in the area here.. xP
When I and the other foreign students in my batch went to the closes immigration office to register the workers there had great difficulties accepting our application at first, because when they searched for our address in their system all that came up was the Bongsunsa temple.. Haha..

Details from the roof of one of the buildings

Korean colours

Traditional style

More details

The main square at Bongsunsa temple

From inside the main temple

It's a quite peaceful place..

Anyway, this temple is the only thing to see in my neighborhood, and a place where GIPans usually end up walking to when there is nothing else to do. This was my first time actually bringing my camera here, but I'm sure I'll have more than enough time to visit again. And again.