Photos: [cipher] · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Iñaki Pérez de Albéniz · CC BY 2.0 · mihoyofuji · CC BY 2.0 (3, 4, 5)
Saihō-ji (Kokedera) has admitted visitors only by advance application since 1977, and the visit is a religious service first: you copy a sutra in the main hall before you are allowed into the moss garden, which has over 120 moss species.
Why it's unique
The entry ritual is the experience, and it is specific and checkable: since 1977 the temple has admitted only those who apply in advance, and every visitor copies a sutra before being let into the garden.
The researcher filed it as a record with doubt, noting the sutra-copying entry is singular while the garden is not, and that a reviewer may prefer notable. Confidence is lowered accordingly.
Before you go
The sutra is usually the short Enmei Jikku Kannon-gyō, traced over faint printed characters with a brush-pen; it takes about 15 minutes, then about an hour in the garden. Online booking needs an account and runs to the day before; return-postcard applications are cheaper but must arrive a week ahead and you bring your own brush-pen.
Groups of six or more are refused. No photography in the hall. Children of primary age and under are not admitted. It costs about ¥4,000 by online booking (¥3,000 by postcard, per recent visit reports; the fee is not on the official page). Combine with Suzumushi-dera, three minutes' walk away.
