We spoke too soon about being templed out. Those we saw today were really something special and we wouldn't have wanted to miss them.
We headed north on the No. 100 bus to start off at the Ginkaku-ji Temple. The temple itself was nothing special, but the garden was yet again superb and different to any others. It's a pity that we are not here to see them in either full spring bloom or in autumn colours, but with winter clothing they are in a way more simple, and the tree forms show out so well. The garden started off with a spectacular sand mountain I can only describe as a sandcastle, with unusual raised sand beds as well.
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| Ginkakuji Temple Garden, note the 'sandcastle' |
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| Ginkakuji Temple Garden |
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| Ginkakuji Temple Garden |
We did a lovely tour of the hillside, moss, ponds and bridges. This temple marks the start of the Philosopher's Walk, which takes the path along the canal that a philosophy professor did daily in the 1940s. The walk was very pleasant, with some lovely little boutique shops along it, as well as restaurants and at least one good coffee cart which we can attest to. Kyoto has a rich background in handcrafts of all types, and we particularly enjoyed some handbags and the fabrics they were made from.
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| Philosopher's Walk |
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| Some of the lovely fabrics and bags |
We skipped three temples, then visited Eikan-do Zenrin-ji temple. This was a very large complex, starting with some rooms with fabulous painted panels, then a very large but somehow simple main temple. No photos allowed inside the temples unfortunately, and none even on the internet I can borrow. However the scenes of mountains, birds, tigers and more were just lovely, and plainly very very old. So many temples have been burnt out and rebuilt, some many times, but these paintings must have survived several centuries, and looked it. The main temple itself had gorgeous painted structure, and inside was a mix of plain and vastly rich, with huge gold "chandeliers", and countless gold objects around the altar.
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| Eikan-do Zenrin-ji temple detail |
A great view of Kyoto from the pagoda at the top. Kyoto is surprising low, no skyscrapers at all, and as we have found in our travels around the city, much of it is very low-rise, and a strange mix of ancient buildings, ones from the 70s and 80s when Japan was hugely wealthy, and some more modern ones. There are some really good pieces of architecture, and an awful lot of humdrum rubbish ones.
The next temple, Nanzen-ji, had an enormous gateway building - the 3rd largest in the country. Massive timbers and very impressive. By now quite late, and we stopped off and had some udon for lunch, a particularly good "set" where the elderly owner was chatting with her equally elderly friends. You can either get just the main bowl, or a "set", which adds rice, pickles and a small bowl of soup for a small extra price, e.g. 850 instead of 700 yen. Both include tea.
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| Nanzen-ji's massive timber gate |
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| Bold painting on the entrance ceiling of Nanzen-ji |
Back to our room about 4:30 to put our feet up for a while, before heading out in the approaching night to see the Gion District specially lit up. We caught most of a dance by two maiko (apprentice geisha), then enjoyed the lantern-lit streets of this area. It is a particularly small-scale and well-preserved part of Kyoto, where the geisha still bring their clients to the tea-houses. Dinner prices there were a bit rich, so we headed out and ended up back at our Chinese restaurant from two nights ago, where we splashed out and had a mini-banquet of countless dishes, all for a ridiculously small sum. Delicious!
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| Maiko on stage dancing |
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| Giant paper lanterns |
We came back in to hear about the appalling news of the New Zealand terrorist attack in Christchurch. From here it seemed surreal. So awful - we can't imagine that NZ will ever be quite the same.
