Kyoto: our last full day

Today was a full day of walking. We ventured out of the hotel around 10:00, walked past Nijo castle, and hopped a JR train at Nijo station. We got off two stops later when we were closer to a couple of the temples we wanted to see today: Ryoanji (the rock garden temple) and Kinkakuji (the golden temple).

After getting off the train we promptly found ourselves “lost” but with our Kyoto map, we managed to get back on track and we found a great restaurant for lunch run by a man with great English who had honeymooned in B.C. and Alberta 25 years ago.

We first came across Ryoanji temple which is famous for its Zen rock garden which has fifteen large rocks “expertly placed” on a bed of raked gravel. After seeing the photos of the garden, we had built up our expectations and were somewhat underwhelmed by the rock garden portion. Perpendicular to the rock garden was a moss garden which we found more beautiful. The hoards of tourists made it hard to feel Zen. Even more gorgeous were the ponds with lily pads and beautiful trees that mimicked the hills, behind the garden. There were turtles, mandarin ducks, and carp in the pond. This more understated part of the garden was far more beautiful.

After Ryoanji, we moseyed down the road to Kinkakuji: the famous golden temple. It was very beautiful, but we felt a little like cattle as one could not stray from the path and explore the gardens. It was also very busy. We came to the conclusion that these temples would be much more peaceful (or actually peaceful) if there were no tourists.

We had an ice cream and headed across the street to view some of the local artisan shops and then decided to walk back to our hotel by way of the Imperial Palace gardens. We found a ramen noodle dinner along the way and strolled through the Imperial gardens enjoying the sunset on our way back to the hotel. By this time we had been on our feet for the better part of eight hours, so we were in much need of putting up our feet.  Watching the Japanese news, we deciphered that it was about 36 degrees Celsius (98 Fahrenheit) today, which did not surprise us as it felt like it was sweltering.

Tomorrow we leave Kyoto and visit Hiroshima for two nights. We plan on seeing the Miyajima temple and touring the peace park.

Ryoanji

Ryoanji

The Golden Temple

Imperial Palace

Imperial Palace

Imperial Palace Gardens

August 17, 2010 Temple Walk Day in Kyoto

Today we decided to see some temples in Kyoto. We started off walking towards the Kyoto train station because there is a tourist information office in it. We stopped at Starbucks along the way for a  cool drink. There was a temple, Rokkaku-do, tucked in behind Starbucks and we went to see the various shrines including the fox one. There were aprons and tams on the stone figures around the temple probably because of this festival going on right now. There were carp in the ponds around the temple. We walked around a temple right by the train station, Higashi-Honganji. There were lots of pigeons.

We had lunch in a Japanese restaurant on the top floor of the train station mall area. It had a view that overlooked the city. We just ordered the bento box that the women beside us were eating as the menu was all in Japanese and it was very hard to decipher with no photos. The bento was very good. A little bit of everything and all in little packages and boxes and bowls. Lots of nice little surprises. Then we looked around the shop a bit and marvelled at the kimonos and other shiny things for sale. We walked up from the train station, across the Kamo river to the Sanjussanjen-do Temple. It has hundreds of golden Buddha figures in a hall and a beautiful garden.

We took a cab from there over to the Gion district which is where the Geishas entertain. We looked at the shrine there, Yasaka. We found a fox shrine here too. Then we walked around the street looking at the wares for sale, had dinner at a soba noodle shop, and walked along the river back to the hotel. April is finally getting the hang of the dreaded squat toilets though she still prefers the sit toilets and takes them wherever she can. The key is in a wide stance and using the handles. 

Starbucks with a temple immediately outside

Fancy lunch

The modern face of Buddhism. This bench can be found outside a sacred temple.

It is appropriate to slurp noodles in Japan. In fact, it is a sign that you are enjoying them!