Our day started off with a early wake up call in order to take part in a 6am morning worship at Waqoo Shitaderamachi temple. While various sects of Buddhism employ different means of worship, this temple uses Shomoyo (sutras with a melody) and a Goma ceremony (praying with fire-offering). We were able to participate in worship by chanting the heart sutra (which expresses the truth of impermanence and the release from suffering). In the Goma ceremony part, our calligraphy from last night was burned (in order for our wishes to come true!). After the worship we had a little time to explore the temple grounds which boasted some very impressive features such as as the oldest pagoda in Japan, a tree that if you sit under it you get the wisdom of the Buddha, a tree to help you find love and a well that if you drink from it you become pretty. It was a short walk back to the guest house where we were treated to an excellent Shojin-Ryori (vegetarian dish originally prepared for Buddhist priests) breakfast of Okayu and various pickled vegetables. Having had an early start to our day we had plenty of time to take part in a one day pilgrimage challenge. In small groups of 3-5 people we visited as many temple sites as possible in two and a half hours. There were 13 sites in total, but visiting all of them takes at least five hours. As well as seeing some very beautiful Buddhist temples and pagodas, most of the group also took the opportunity to explore the city of Osaka a little more. Finding the temples turned out to be more work than anticipated with each group finding about 3-4 temple sites in the allotted time. After our pilgrimage was complete we took a couple of trains and a bus to Mt. Koya. The bus ride offered incredible views of the surrounding landscape as we went up the mountain. We arrived at Rengejōin temple in time to enjoy another spectacular vegetarian Japanese style dinner with 5 or 6 different dishes. After dinner we had the evening free in the temple which was partially open to the outside, and to get used to walking around in slippers.